Kinetic Investigation of Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Dye Using Mg-Doped Ag2O Nanoparticle

Abstract

In the current research, the Mg-doped Ag2O nanoparticles were produced by the coprecipitation method. The characterization of the as-prepared nanoparticles was conducted through a series of techniques. SEM confirmed homogenous morphology of a sphere with minimal agglomeration. The band gap of Mg–AgO2 was determined to be 2.6 eV. The materials were observed to possess a particle dimension of 23.87 nm. X-ray diffraction (EDX) proved that the substance is 97% Ag, 1.58% oxygen, and 1.42% Mg. The FTIR, PL, DRS, PZC, TEM, and XRD results proved that Mg-doped Ag2O nanoparticles were successfully doped. In this study, the first application of the synthesized Mg-doped Ag2O particles was studied for the decolorization of methyl orange in an aqueous solution. At ideal conditions of dye (30 ppm), neutral pH and the dosage of catalyst (0.4 g), 96.1% of decolorization was obtained in 150 min. The degradation was first order and the activation energy was found to be 13.19 kJ/mol. The recyclability of the material was studied, and it was confirmed that the material could be reused multiple times.