Higher density of single metal atom oxide anchored MnO2-rGO nanocomposites for efficient visible light driven photodegradation of sulfanilamide and methyl orange pollutants

• Published in: Journal of water process engineering 2024-06, Vol.63, p.105549, Article 105549
• Main Authors: Selvakumar, Karuppaiah, Sriram, Ganesan, Oh, Tae Hwan, Wang, Yueshuai, Sadhasivam, Thangarasu, Sadhasivam, Subramani, Thiruramanathan, Pandirengan, Habila, Mohamed A., Swaminathan, Meenakshisundaram
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Methyl orange; MnO2; Photodegradation; Single metal atom oxide; Sulfanilamide
• ISSN: 2214-7144; 2214-7144
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jwpe.2024.105549

Organic pollutants of the modern era have been the subject of extensive observation in ecosystems due to the fact that they are not completely eliminated and are still hazardous. An innovative method of using clean, abundant solar energy to remove industrial environmental pollutants, such as pharmaceutical and dye contaminants, is to design a high-efficiency sun-activated photocatalyst. In this work we fabricated rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-30 heterojunction photocatalyst for the visible-light degradation of sulfanilamide (SFA) and methyl orange (MO) pollutants using a simple sonication approach. The photocatalyst's active surface area and visible light absorption were enhanced both by doping the surface of MnO2 with a higher density single metal atom oxide (SMAO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO). A number of characterizations showed that the rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-30 catalyst's increased SMAO particle anchoring (STEM-HAADF) and increased visible light absorption (DRS-UV–Vis) contributed to its high catalytic activity toward the SFA and MO decomposition. Under visible-light irradiation, the photocatalytic performances were evaluated for the decomposition of SFA and MO pollutants. The impact of various experiment parameters on the composites' photoactivity were examined. In the presence of visible light, the highest achievable photodegradation removal of SFA/MO was determined to be 27.65/50.72 %, 38.73/57.44 %, 48.71/72.54 %, 52.77/74.31 %, 55.71/77.61 %, 71.36/82.35 % and 97.38/98.76 % within 90/30 min when utilizing HPACu, HPACo, MnO2, rGO-ED-MnO2-WCo-30, rGO-ED-MnO2-WCu-30, rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-20, rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-30 catalysts respectively. Furthermore, O2•- radicals had a significant influence in the lowest degradation efficiency (25.83/30.56 %) shown by SFA/MO. No detectable change in activity was seen after six photodegradation cycles using rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-30 (30 mg) in an SFA/MO solution. [Display omitted] •The successfully synthesized single metal atom oxide anchored on MnO2-rGO surface.•The rGO-ED-MnO2-WCuCo-30 showed enhanced photodegradation activity for SFA and MO.•SFA and MO degradation was examined in relation to operating parameter variations.•The degradation pathway of SFA was identified by LC-MS.