A Study of Mesoporous Ag3 VO4 Photocatalyst with Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Degradation of Dyes

Abstract

Presently, the increased rate of pollution has made the preservation of environment a foremost issue worldwide. The visible-light-driven and environment-friendly technique of photocatalysis has marked to be an efficient technology for the resolution of this issue. The technology employs the energy of light photons for the generation of electron-hole pairs at the surface of the semiconductor photocatalyst, which were then employed for the degradation of the toxic compounds. Herein, mesoporous Ag3VO4 photocatalyst has been developed by using the KIT-6 silica hard template. The desired small-sized particles of photocatalysts were produced inside the meso pores of the hard template, which was then removed by the dissolution in the alkaline solution. The obtained material was tested for its superior physicochemical properties by employing a range of characterizations such as FTIR, XRD, Raman, PL, SEM, BET, UV-Vis DRS etc. The obtained material exhibited a very high surface area, high pore volume, possession of monoclinic phase, less recombination of electron-hole pairs, more capability of light harvesting, making the photocatalyst capable enough to generate excellent activity results. The as-synthesized material was employed for the degradation of organic dyes, which were subsequently analyzed by using UV-vis Spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation capability of as-synthesized materials was found higher than that of the conventional one, which was attributed to its high surface area, accessibility of a maximized number of active sites, possession of monoclinic phase and less electron-hole recombination characteristic. The kinetic study revealed good compliance with the pseudo-first order reaction mechanism. Similarly, a comprehensive parametric study for the optimization of parameters governing the photocatalytic reaction was conducted. A tentative reaction mechanism was proposed. Furthermore, the recyclability and regeneration tests were carried out to examine the commercial applicability of the anticipated technology.