Role of the dopant (silver) inclusion on before and after core metal-oxide reaction: Application on textile dyes removal

Herein, Silver (Ag) doped CuO and SnO₂ were prepared by a facile chemical method. To investigate the role of the doping time on morphology and photocatalytic performance, the silver precursor was added before and after adding sodium hydroxide (NaOH) precursor. The prepared nanoparticles were used to photocatalytic study for degradation of Bromophenol blue (BP) and Crystal violet (CV) dyes under visible irradiation. The synthesized Ag-CuO, CuO-Ag, Ag-SnO₂ and SnO₂-Ag nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), photoluminescence (PL), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From the XRD result, the crystallite size was found to be 18–22 nm range. The microscopy results revealed that overall morphology of the nanoparticles was in spherical shape. The role of the Ag dopant was clearly demonstrated by optical, morphological and photocatalytic studies. The Ag-CuO and Ag-SnO₂ were showed enhanced photocatalytic performance than pure and CuO-Ag and SnO₂-Ag nanoparticles. The photogenerated electron-hole pairs and oxygen vacancy formation supported to enhance the dye degradation efficiency. The effect of the catalyst concentration, electron scavenger, and cycling stability were examined in detail. The Ag doped nanoparticles comparatively have demonstrated better degradation of CV and BP dyes under visible light. Therefore, the synthesized nanoparticles could have beneficial application in environmental application.