Al-Kadhi Nada S, Mostafa Ayman M, Al-Senani Ghadah M, Al-Ahmadi Ameenah N, Alamro Fowzia S, Ahmed Hoda A, Al-Faze Rawan, Elsharkawy Wafaa B, Mwafy Eman A
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Physics, College of Science, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
Microsc Res Tech. 2025 Sep;88(9):2492-2503. doi: 10.1002/jemt.24858. Epub 2025 Apr 16.
The heterojunction based on plasmonic metals of Ag and Cu in the oxide form was synthesized and decorated carbon nanotubes to form Ag-CuO/MWCNTs nanocomposites via a pulsed laser ablation process for water treatment. This study presents the synthesis and characterization of Ag/MWCNTs nanocomposites with different amounts of CuO NPs using a novel two-step pulsed laser ablation technique for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Congo Red dye under UV-visible-light irradiation. Structural and optical characterization techniques confirmed the successful formation of highly pure and crystalline nanocomposites, and the coupling of Ag NPs with CuO NPs significantly enhanced visible-light absorption, making the nanocomposites highly effective for photocatalytic applications, which were systematically evaluated under varying pH, catalyst dosage, dye concentration, and irradiation time conditions. The results demonstrated that Ag-CuO/MWCNTs with 60 min ablation (30min for Cu and 30 min for Ag), Ag-CuO/MWCNTs(2), achieved the highest degradation efficiency of 99.43% for Congo Red (CR) dye at pH 8.0 and an optimal catalyst dosage. Kinetic studies and the degradation mechanism revealed that the photodegradation process followed the Langmuir-Hinshelwood pseudo-first-order model, with Ag-CuO/MWCNTs(2) exhibiting the fastest degradation rate, outperforming other samples by degrading CR dye. This work underscores the potential of Ag-CuO/MWCNTs nanocomposites as highly efficient photocatalysts for environmental remediation, particularly in the degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater. The findings provide valuable insights into optimizing photocatalytic processes for practical applications, offering a promising solution for sustainable water treatment and pollution control.
通过脉冲激光烧蚀工艺合成了基于氧化物形式的银和铜等等离子体金属的异质结，并对碳纳米管进行修饰，以形成用于水处理的Ag-CuO/MWCNTs纳米复合材料。本研究采用一种新颖的两步脉冲激光烧蚀技术，合成并表征了具有不同含量CuO纳米颗粒的Ag/MWCNTs纳米复合材料，用于在紫外-可见光照射下增强刚果红染料的光催化降解。结构和光学表征技术证实成功形成了高纯度和结晶性的纳米复合材料，并且Ag纳米颗粒与CuO纳米颗粒的耦合显著增强了可见光吸收，使得该纳米复合材料在光催化应用中非常有效，在不同的pH值、催化剂用量、染料浓度和照射时间条件下对其进行了系统评估。结果表明，烧蚀60分钟（Cu烧蚀30分钟，Ag烧蚀30分钟）的Ag-CuO/MWCNTs，即Ag-CuO/MWCNTs(2)，在pH值为8.0和最佳催化剂用量时，对刚果红（CR）染料的降解效率最高，达到99.43%。动力学研究和降解机理表明，光降解过程遵循Langmuir-Hinshelwood准一级模型，Ag-CuO/MWCNTs(2)表现出最快的降解速率，在降解CR染料方面优于其他样品。这项工作强调了Ag-CuO/MWCNTs纳米复合材料作为用于环境修复的高效光催化剂的潜力，特别是在废水中有机污染物的降解方面。这些发现为优化实际应用中的光催化过程提供了有价值的见解，为可持续水处理和污染控制提供了一个有前景的解决方案。
