Search

Waste management and energy generation are the foremost concerns due to their direct relationship with biological species and the environment. Herein, we report the utilization of iron rust (inorganic pollutant) as a photocatalyst for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye (organic pollutant) under visible light (economic) and water oxidation (energy generation). Iron rust was collected from metallic pipes and calcined in the furnace at 700 °C for 3 h to remove the moisture/volatile content. The uncalcined and calcined rust NPs are characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The morphological study illustrated that the shape of uncalcined and calcined iron rust is spongy, porous, and agglomerated. The XRD and DLS particle sizes are in a few hundred nanometers range. The photodegradation (PD) investigation shows that calcined rust NPs are potent for the PD of modeled MB, and the degradation efficiency was about 94% in a very short time of 11 min. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements revealed that calcined rust NPs are more active than uncalcined rust under simulated 1 SUN illumination with the respective photocurrent densities of ~0.40 and ~0.32 mA/cm2. The density functional theory simulations show the chemisorption of dye molecules over the catalyst surface, which evinces the high catalytic activity of the catalyst. These results demonstrate that cheaper and abundantly available rust can be useful for environmental and energy applications.

Chemical reduction method was used to synthesize Nickle oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) and NiO supported on titanium dioxide (TiO2/NiO) NPs. The morphological investigation showed that neat TiO2 NPs are present in both a dispersed and agglomerated form, whereas NiO NPs are well distributed and deposited on the surface of TiO2 with size below 200 nm. The majority of the NiO NPs have a cubical form. The formation of NiO NPs was also verified by FT-IR analysis. The synthesized TiO2/NiO and NiO NPs were used as photocatalystsfor the degradation of Orange II (OII) dye. According to the degradation investigation, both NiO NPs and TiO2/NiO NPs degraded OII dye more efficiently when exposed to UV light. The results indicated that NiO NPs degraded 93% and TiO2/NiO NPs degraded approximately 96% of OII dye within 30 min. The recovered and re-recovered NPs were also significantly degraded OII dye. The effects of initial dye concentration, catalyst dosage, and pH effect were studied. Promising bioactivities were demonstrated by TiO2/NiO and NiO NPs against the pathogenic bacteria citrobacter and provedincia. TiO2/NiO NPs have strong antioxidant activity (80%) compared to the standard ascorbic acid (88%).

Manganese–platinum oxide nanoparticles/activated carbon nanoparticles (Mn-Pt/AC NPs) and manganese–platinum oxide nanoparticles (Mn-Pt NPs) were synthesized via chemical reduction process and emplo...

Multiwalled carbon nanotubes supported Ag–Co oxides (A-MWNTs/Ag–Co) and unsupported Ag–Co bimetallic oxides (Ag–Co) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by chemical reduction method. The A-MWCNTs/Ag–C...

At present, wastes management and energy generation are the foremost concerns due to their direct relationship with the biological species and environment. Herein we report utilization of iron rust (inorganic pollutant) as photocatalyst for photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye (organic pollutant) under visible light (economic) and water oxidation (energy generation). Iron rust was collected from metallic pipes and calcined in the furnace at 700 °C for 3 h in order to remove moisture/volatile content. The uncalcined and calcined Rust are characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Thermogravematric analysis (TGA). The morphological study illustrated that the shape of uncalcinedand calcined iron rust is spongy, porous, and agglomerated. The XRD and DLS particle size is in a few hundred-nanometer range.The photodegradation (PD) investigation shows that calcined Rust is a potent photocatalyst for the PD of modeled MB and degraded about 94% in a very short time of 11 min. The photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements revealed that calcined Rust is more active than uncalcined Rust under simulated 1-SUN illumination with respective photocurrent densities of ~0.40 and ~0.32 mA/cm2. These results demonstrate that cheaper and abundantly available Rust can be a useful candidate for environmental and energy applications.

The bromophenol blue dye in aqueous medium was photodegraded (under UV irradiation) by graphene nanoplates-supported titanium oxide (TiO2/GNP). The determination of various elements (percentage) and morphological study was performed using energy-dispersive X-rays and scanning electron microscopy, while the photodegradation study of dye was done by UV–visible spectrophotometer. The morphological study showed that the TiO2 particles were dispersed well on the surface of GNP. The sizes of TiO2 particles were below 500 nm. The photodegradation study was performed as function of time, and it was found that the photodegradation of dye in aqueous medium was increased as the time duration of UV irradiation increased. It was found that about 86% of dye was degraded within 8 h. The degradation of bromophenol blue is pH-dependent, and the photodegradation rate was increased as the pH of solution increased. The increase in dye degradation might be due to the formation of more hydroxyl radical at higher pH. The degradation of dye at pH 2, 4, 6 and 8 was about 70, 79, 90 and 95%, respectively.

Titanium oxide supported palladium (TiO2/Pd) and titanium oxide supported platinum (TiO2/Pt) nanoparticles were prepared from their precursors through the incipient wetness method. The TiO2/Pd and TiO2/Pt nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-rays (EDX), while the photodegradation study of methyl violet was performed by UV/VIS spectrophotometry. The morphological study shows that the Pd and Pt were well deposited on the surface of TiO2, which was confirmed by EDX. Both TiO2/Pd and TiO2/Pt nanoparticles were used as photocatalysts for the photodegradation of methyl violet in aqueous media under UV-light irradiation. The photodegradation study revealed that the TiO2/Pd and TiO2/Pt nanoparticles degraded about 95 and 78% of dye within 20 min, respectively. The effect of various parameters such as catalyst dosage, concentration of dye, and medium on the photocatalytic degradation was examined. The activity of recovered TiO2/Pd and TiO2/Pt nanoparticles was studied.