Development of MOF Based Recyclable Photocatalyst for the Removal of Different Organic Dye Pollutants

Abstract

The preparation of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) has come to the forefront in recent years because of their outstanding physical and chemical properties. Many MOFs such as Zn, Co, Ni, Fe, and Ag, etc., have been successfully synthesized. In this work, we followed the solvothermal assisted route to synthesize Ag-MOF (abbreviated as AMOF) nanosheets and then applied them as a photocatalyst to remove different organic pollutants, namely methyl orange (MO), crystal violet (CV), and methylene blue (MB). Chemical composition, optical properties, morphology, and microstructural analysis were analyzed using XPS, UV-visible spectrophotometer, FESEM, TEM, and EDS, respectively. The structural properties of AMOF nanosheets were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherm analysis were utilized to evaluate the specific surface area and pore size of the AMOF nanosheets. Further, AMOF nanosheets showed notable photocatalytic performance for various dye pollutants degradation. The results confirmed 74.5, 85.5, and 90.7% of MO, CV, and MB dye pollutants removal after 120 min of irradiation with the rate constants (k) of 0.0123, 0.0153, and 0.0158 min−1, respectively. The effect of superoxide radicals (O2−) and photogenerated holes (h+) on the organic dye pollutants removal was investigated using radical scavenger trapping studies. Moreover, the stability study also confirmed the recyclability of the photocatalyst. Therefore, the findings of this research present a realizable method to grow AMOF photocatalyst for successful degradation of various dye pollutants.