Ultrasensitive Electrochemical Detection and Plasmon-Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Rhodamine B Based on Dual-Functional, 3D, Hierarchical Ag/ZnO Nanoflowers

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Abstract

The sensitive detection and degradation of synthetic dyes are pivotal to maintain safety owing to the adverse side effects they impart on living beings. In this work, we developed a sensitive electrochemical sensor for the nanomolar-level detection of rhodamine B (RhB) using a dual-functional, silver-decorated zinc oxide (Ag/ZnO) composite-modified, screen-printed carbon electrode. The plasmon-enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant RhB was also performed using this nanocomposite prepared by embedding different weight percentages (1, 3, and 5 wt%) of Ag nanoparticles on the surface of a three-dimensional (3D), hierarchical ZnO nanostructure based on the photoreduction approach. The structure and morphology of an Ag/ZnO nanocomposite were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), elemental mapping, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The electrochemical sensor exhibited a very high sensitivity of 151.44 µAµM−1cm−2 and low detection limit of 0.8 nM towards RhB detection. The selectivity, stability, repeatability, reproducibility, and practical feasibility were also analyzed to prove their reliability. Furthermore, the photocatalysis results revealed that 3 wt% of the Ag/ZnO hybrid nanostructure acquired immense photostability, reusability, and 90.5% degradation efficiency under visible light. Additionally, the pseudo-first-order rate constant of Ag-3/ZnO is 2.186 min−1 suggested promising activity in visible light photocatalysis.

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Recent developments of zinc oxide based photocatalyst in water treatment technology: A review.

Kian Lee, Chin Wei Lai, Koh Sing Ngai … (2016)

Today, a major issue about water pollution is the residual dyes from different sources (e.g., textile industries, paper and pulp industries, dye and dye intermediates industries, pharmaceutical industries, tannery and craft bleaching industries, etc.), and a wide variety of persistent organic pollutants have been introduced into our natural water resources or wastewater treatment systems. In fact, it is highly toxic and hazardous to the living organism; thus, the removal of these organic contaminants prior to discharge into the environment is essential. Varieties of techniques have been employed to degrade those organic contaminants and advanced heterogeneous photocatalysis involving zinc oxide (ZnO) photocatalyst appears to be one of the most promising technology. In recent years, ZnO photocatalyst have attracted much attention due to their extraordinary characteristics. The high efficiency of ZnO photocatalyst in heterogeneous photocatalysis reaction requires a suitable architecture that minimizes electron loss during excitation state and maximizes photon absorption. In order to further improve the immigration of photo-induced charge carriers during excitation state, considerable effort has to be exerted to further improve the heterogeneous photocatalysis under UV/visible/solar illumination. Lately, interesting and unique features of metal doping or binary oxide photocatalyst system have gained much attention and became favourite research matter among various groups of scientists. It was noted that the properties of this metal doping or binary oxide photocatalyst system primarily depend on the nature of the preparation method and the role of optimum dopants content incorporated into the ZnO photocatalyst. Therefore, this paper presents a critical review of recent achievements in the modification of ZnO photocatalyst for organic contaminants degradation.

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Removal of the hazardous dye rhodamine B through photocatalytic and adsorption treatments.

Anurag S. Sikarwar, Megha Mathur, Vijay A. Mittal … (2007)

This paper reports on photocatalytic and adsorptive treatment of a hazardous xanthene dye, Rohdamine B, in wastewater. The photocatalytic degradation was carried out in the presence of the catalyst TiO(2) and the effects of pH, concentration of the dye, amount of TiO(2), temperature and electron acceptor H(2)O(2) on the degradation process were observed. It was found that photocatalytic degradation by TiO(2) is an effective, economical and faster mode of removing Rohdamine B from aqueous solutions. Attempts were also made to utilize activated carbon and rice husk as potential adsorbents to remove Rhodamine B from wastewater. The adsorption studies were carried out at 40, 50 and 60 degrees C, and the effects of pH, temperature, amount of adsorbents, concentration of adsorbate, etc., on the adsorption were measured. On the basis of adsorption data the Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm models were also confirmed. The adsorption isotherm constants thus obtained were employed to calculate thermodynamic parameters like Gibb's free energy, change in enthalpy and entropy. In order to observe the quality of wastewater COD measurements were also carried out before and after the treatments. A significant decrease in the COD values was observed, which clearly indicates that both photocatalytic and adsorption methods offer good potential to remove Rhodamine B from industrial effluents.