Facile refluxed synthesis of TiO2/Ag2O@Ti-BTC as efficient catalyst for photodegradation of methylene blue and electrochemical studies

• Published in: Journal of the Iranian Chemical Society Vol. 18; no. 6; pp. 1269 - 1277
• Main Authors: Hussain, Hafiz Muzammil, Fiaz, Muhammad, Athar, Muhammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Aqueous solutions; Biochemistry; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Dyes; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Inorganic Chemistry; Light irradiation; Metal-organic frameworks; Methylene blue; Nanocomposites; Organic Chemistry; Original Paper; Oxygen evolution reactions; Particulate composites; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Physical Chemistry; Titanium; Titanium dioxide; Water splitting; Photodegradation; Water splitting; Metal organic frameworks (MOFs); Methylene blue; Electrochemical
• ISSN: 1735-207X; 1735-2428
• DOI: 10.1007/s13738-020-02109-4

Due to unique properties, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted great research attention towards sustainable energy and environmental remediation. In this article, highly efficient TiO 2 @Ti(BTC) and TiO 2 /Ag 2 O@Ti(BTC) composites have been synthesized via in-situ incorporation of pre-synthesized TiO 2 and TiO 2 /Ag 2 O into Ti-based MOF Ti(BTC) via facile refluxed method. All the synthesized samples have been successfully characterized by PXRD, SEM, EDX and UV-Visible spectroscopy. All these samples are used for study the photodegradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. It has been found that incorporation of TiO 2 NPs and TiO 2 /Ag 2 O nanocomposite into Ti(BTC) shifts the band gap towards more visible region, elevates the yield of O 2 ∙– and OH ∙– radicals and enhances the photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue in the presence of visible light. Amongst all the synthesized samples, TiO 2 /Ag 2 O@Ti(BTC) shows maximum photocatalytic activity towards photodegradation of methylene blue as compared to all other synthesized samples. It is observed that after 60 min, TiO 2 /Ag 2 O@Ti(BTC) shows minimum absorption of 0.02 as compared to TiO 2 (0.17), TiO 2 /Ag 2 O (0.052), Ti(BTC) (0.32) and TiO 2 @Ti(BTC) (0.21). It reveals that methylene blue has been successfully degraded by synthesized samples and maximum activity has been shown by TiO 2 /Ag 2 O@Ti(BTC). Further, electrochemical water splitting activity of these samples has been studied. It has been found that TiO 2 /Ag 2 O@Ti(BTC) shows maximum catalytic activity towards both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). It generates maximum current density 97.15 and − 110 mA cm −2 towards both OER and HER, respectively, as compared to all other samples. Graphic abstract