Sonochemical synthesis of WS2 nanosheets and its application in sonocatalytic removal of organic dyes from water solution

Alireza Khataee; Paria Eghbali; Mahsa Haddad Irani-Nezhad; Aydin Hassani

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.06.003

Sonochemical synthesis of WS₂ nanosheets and its application in sonocatalytic removal of organic dyes from water solution

Ultrason Sonochem. 2018 Nov:48:329-339. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.06.003. Epub 2018 Jun 15.

Authors

Alireza Khataee¹, Paria Eghbali², Mahsa Haddad Irani-Nezhad³, Aydin Hassani⁴

Affiliations

¹ Research Laboratory of Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment Processes, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471 Tabriz, Iran; Department of Materials Science and Nanotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Near East University, 99138 Nicosia, North Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey. Electronic address: a_khataee@tabrizu.ac.ir.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Atatürk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey.
³ Research Laboratory of Advanced Water and Wastewater Treatment Processes, Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471 Tabriz, Iran.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Nanotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Near East University, 99138 Nicosia, North Cyprus, Mersin 10, Turkey.

PMID: 30080558
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2018.06.003

Abstract

In this research, tungsten disulfide (WS₂) nanosheets as sonocatalyst were synthesized through a sonochemical route. Characterization of as-synthesized sonocatalyst was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Dot-mapping, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS) analysis. WS₂ nanosheets were evaluated for their sonocatalytic performance in order to remove basic violet 10 (BV10) under ultrasonic irradiation. The removal efficiency was maximized (94.01%) via the use of 1 g L^-1 catalyst and 10 mg L^-1 BV10 at pH = 4.5 and an ultrasonic power of 400 W within a reaction time of 150 min. In addition to BV10, the sonocatalytic elimination for a number of organic dyes viz. direct blue 71, acid blue 92, methylene blue, basic orange 2 and basic red 46 was examined to demonstrate the performance of WS₂ nanosheets under the ultrasonic irradiation. The experimentation of trapping was conducted using edetate disodium (EDTA-2Na), tert-butyl alcohol (t-BuOH), and benzoquinone (BQ). According to the results, all radicals participated in the sonocatalytic activity. OH played a more prominent role than h⁺ and O₂^-∙ in the process of BV10 separation. Following five repetitive runs, the nanocomposites revealed a reusability of circa 18% drop in the elimination efficiency. The main removal intermediates were recognized by GC-MS technique.

Keywords: Organic dyes; Sonocatalyst; Sonocatalytic removal; WS(2) nanosheets; Wastewater treatment; Water solution.