A facile synthesis of CuAg nanoparticles on highly porous ZnO/carbon black-cellulose acetate sheets for nitroarene and azo dyes reduction/degradation

• Published in: International journal of biological macromolecules Vol. 130; pp. 288 - 299
• Main Authors: Khan, Shahid Ali, Khan, Sher Bahadar, Farooq, Aliya, Asiri, Abdullah M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2019
• Subjects: carbon; Cellulose acetate; copper; copper nanoparticles; crystal structure; CuAg nanoparticles; Degradation; energy-dispersive X-ray analysis; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; ions; methyl orange; methylene blue; moieties; nanocomposites; nanosilver; p-nitrophenol; pollutants; polymers; rhodamines; scanning electron microscopy; silver; X-ray diffraction; zinc oxide; Degradation; CuAg nanoparticles; Cellulose acetate
• ISSN: 0141-8130; 1879-0003; 1879-0003
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2019.02.114

A facile and highly porous heterostructure nanocomposite was designed for the support of zero-valent metal nanoparticles. This nanocomposite comprising of ZnO/carbon black (ZnO/CB) embedded in cellulose acetate polymer (CA), named as ZCA sheet, supported the metallic Cu, Ag and bimetallic CuAg nanoparticles (NPs). The ZnO/CB was incorporated to CA polymer host molecule in 3, 4 and 5 wt% and are designated as ZCA-3, ZCA-4 and ZCA-5. The catalytic tunability was evaluated for CuAg/ZCA-5 by adjusting the concentration of Cu and Ag ions in different molar ratio. Therefore, the CuAg/ZCA-5 was further selected for the removal of eight model pollutants comprising of o-nitrophenol (ONP), m-nitrophenol (MNP), p-nitrophenol (PNP), 2,6-dinitrophenol (DNP), methyl orange (MO), congo red (CR), methylene blue (MB) and rhodamine B (RB). The Kapp value for PNP was 1.9 × 10−1 min−1 and 9.0 × 10−2 min−1 for MO. Among the various nitrophenols, the rate of reaction with CuAg/ZCA-5 followed the ordered as PNP ˃ ONP ˃ MNP ˃ DNP, while methyl orange (MO) is degraded faster as compared to other dyes. The morphology, shape, elemental analysis, functional groups and peak crystallinity were scrutinized through FESEM, EDS, ATR-FTIR and XRD respectively. [Display omitted] •Synthesis and characterization of ZnO/CB-CA sheets•Supported metal nanoparticles on ZnO/CB-CA sheets•Reduction/degradation of nitrophenols and dyes•Simultaneous removal of nitrophenols and dyes