(6gn) A Comprehensive Study of Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue By ZnO Nanoparticles and Its Nano-Composites with Ag an C3N4 Under UV Light

A Comprehensive study of photocatalytic degradation of Methylene Blue By ZnO Nano particles and its Nano composites with Ag and C₃N₄ Under UV Light.

Sadia Ata¹, Samina Ghafoor¹, Ifra Mirza¹, Qurat-ul-Ayne¹

¹Institute of Chemistry, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

sad_ziam@yahoo.com¹, saminaghafoor0@gmail.com,

Abstract:

We report a simple and convenient method for the synthesis of Ag/ZnO and Ag/ZnO/g-C₃N₄ heterostructurenanorods by applying simple routes. Initially, pure ZnOnanorods have been synthesized by hydrothermal method followed by Ag deposition on ZnO surface by photodeposition. Structure, crystallinity, and morphology have been assessed by X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform Infrared, and scanning electron microscopy techniques. The influences of the deposited Ag nanoparticles on the surface of ZnO and subsequent composite with g-C₃N₄ have been emphasized by applying the as synthesized nanostructure in dye degradation under illumination of UV light. The basic motivation behind this work is to find a superior photocatalyst, which can efficiently degrade the organic pollutants from water. Photocatalytic performances of bare ZnO, Ag/ZnO, g-C₃N₄/ZnO and Ag/ZnO/g-C₃N₄ have been studied thoroughly. Photodegradation results demonstrated that the incorporation of silver and graphitic carbon nitride nanoparticles significantly increases the catalytic efficiency by promoting the photogenerated charge carrier separation. The main advantage of the proposed Ag/ZnO/g-C₃N₄ semiconductor is that it delays the recombination process of the electron–hole pairs generated by the photon absorption, which in lieu increases the photocatalytic efficiency. It is a challenging issue to fabricate stable photocatalysts which is efficient upto 96% after 5^th time recyclic study.

Research Interests

Material synthesis at nano scale acting as a sorbent, functionalization studies on the Polymeric skeleton, Water quality, Environmental issues, Disinfection by products, Haloacetic acids , Ploy aromatic hydrocarbon, Pesticides, Trihalomethane, Modeling (predictive and time series ), Method development, Monitoring of Environmental pollutants, Heavy metal studies, Removal of heavy metals, Method development based on instrumental technique such as GC- ECD, GC-MS, HPLC, Solid phase extraction (SPE), Solid phase microextraction (SPME) etc.

Teaching Interest

Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Instrumental Techniques

Image:

Figure:1 Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue by Ag/g-C₃N₄/ZnO composite under UV light.

Research Interests:

Material synthesis at nano scale acting as a sorbent, functionalization studies on the Polymeric skeleton, Water quality, Environmental issues, Disinfection by products, Haloacetic acids , Ploy aromatic hydrocarbon, Pesticides, Trihalomethane, Modeling (predictive and time series ), Method development, Monitoring of Environmental pollutants, Heavy metal studies, Removal of heavy metals, Method development based on instrumental technique such as GC- ECD, GC-MS, HPLC, Solid phase extraction (SPE), Solid phase microextraction (SPME) etc.

Teaching Interests: Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Instrumental Techniques