Enhanced photo catalytic activity of Ag2O nanostructures through strontium doping

Abstract

Nanoparticles of Ag2O and varying amounts of Sr-doped Ag2O synthesized by basic co-precipitation method were practiced for purging of relentless organic dyes, after characterizing them using Powdered x-ray Diffraction (PXRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Photo catalytic degradation of cationic dyes such as methylene blue (MB), rhodamine B (RhB) and anionic dye methyl orange (MO) was carried out by utilizing photosensitive silver oxide nanoparticles functionalized with various concentrations of strontium under solar irradiation with the aid of UV-vis spectroscopy. Besides the rapid de colorization, Sr/Ag2O solar-driven photocatalysis was concurrently able to oxidize the dye, leading to approximate mineralization of carbon. It is proposed that prime oxidant in degradation of both kind of dyes is hydroxyl radical. Kinetic analysis reveals that photodegradation of cationic and anionic dyes follow pseudo-first order kinetics.