Synthesis and characterisation of Ag-Cu-co-Doped WO3 @Carbeneous materials composites for waste water treatment

Abstract

Nanoparticles of tungsten oxide are widely used in advanced chemical processes but the application of tungsten oxide (WO3) in photocatalysis is limited. To increase their application in photocatalysis, nanostructured tungsten oxide (W-1) is co-doped with silver and copper (W-2), and nanocomposites with g-C3N4 (W-3) and CNTs (W-4) are synthesized. Structural, elemental, and morphological analyses of prepared samples were carried out using different characterization techniques like XRD, SEM, FTIR, EDX, and Mott-Schottky. The bandgap of WO3 is 2.75 eV which is reduced to 2.32 eV by doping and composite formation. The degradation of crystal violet and chlorpyrifos is done to check the photocatalytic performance of prepared materials under the light bulb energy. Photodegradation experiment shows 83.33 % and 41 % degradation of CV and chlorpyrifos respectively. The higher degradation ability is shown by CNTs composites because they have smaller crystallite size (12.81 nm) as compared to other photocatalysts. In the presence of CNTs, the rate of recombination of holes and electrons decreases, resulting in the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. The research reveals that W-4 exhibits promising potential for applications in the photodegradation of organic wastes.