Photocatalytic Degradation of Malachite Green Dye from Aqueous Solution Using Environmentally Compatible Ag/ZnO Polymeric Nanofibers

Abstract

An efficient, environmentally compatible and highly porous, silver surface-modified photocatalytic zinc oxide/cellulose acetate/ polypyrrole ZnO/CA/Ppy hybrid nanofibers matrix was fabricated using an electrospinning technique. Electrospinning parameters such as solution flow rate, applied voltage and the distance between needles to collector were optimized. The optimum homogenous and uniform ZnO/CA/Ppy polymeric composite nanofiber was fabricated through the dispersion of 0.05% wt ZnO into the dissolved hybrid polymeric solution with an average nanofiber diameter ranged between 125 and 170 nm. The fabricated ZnO-polymeric nanofiber was further surface-immobilized with silver nanoparticles to enhance its photocatalytic activity through the reduction of the nanofiber bandgap. A comparative study between ZnO polymeric nanofiber before and after silver immobilization was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the two different prepared nanofibers before and after nanosilver immobilization for malachite green (MG) dye was compared against various experimental parameters. The optimum degradation efficiency of nanosilver surface-modified ZnO-polymeric nanofibers was recorded as 93.5% for malachite green dye after 1 h compared with 63% for ZnO-polymeric nanofibers.

Recent Advances in the Removal of Organic Dyes from Aqueous Media with Conducting Polymers, Polyaniline and Polypyrrole, and Their Composites

“…A list of the composites used in the recent literature includes: graphitic carbon/reduced graphene oxide composites [ 119 ]; multiwall carbon nanotubes/polyacrylonitrile [ 139 ]; silver/tin oxide [ 120 ]; titanium dioxide/Cu-MOF [ 91 ]; titanium dioxide/graphene oxide [ 140 ]; zinc oxide/activated carbon [ 72 ]; zinc oxide/cellulose acetate [ 141 , 142 ]; zinc oxide/copper [ 143 ]; or zinc oxide/magnetite [ 19 ].…”

Adsorption of Cationic Contaminants by Cyclodextrin Nanosponges Cross-Linked with 1,2,3,4-Butanetetracarboxylic Acid and Poly(vinyl alcohol)

“…Because of its high solubility and stability in water, the trace of these synthetic organic dyes produced important public health hazards (carcinogenic and mutagenic effects) [32] and caused potential environmental problems [33,34]. Biological [35][36][37], physical [38,39] and chemical [40,41] treatments have all been informed in the previous studies for MG removal. Therefore, MG was reported in the literature by adsorption [42,43].…”

Polypyrrole and a polypyrrole/nickel oxide composite – single-walled carbon nanotube enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light

“…There are no reports so far on the photocatalytic performance of this core-shell nanostructure ternary system, and not even on the PPy-SWCNT composite, though a few reports are available on PPy and its composites with other constituents. 32,[37][38][39][40][41][42]…”