Chemical Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye Using TiO2/Au Nanoparticles

Luiza Izabela Jinga; Gianina Popescu-Pelin; Gabriel Socol; Sorin Mocanu; Madalina Tudose; Daniela C Culita; Andrei Kuncser; Petre Ionita

doi:10.3390/nano11061605

Chemical Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye Using TiO₂/Au Nanoparticles

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2021 Jun 18;11(6):1605. doi: 10.3390/nano11061605.

Authors

Luiza Izabela Jinga^{1

2}, Gianina Popescu-Pelin², Gabriel Socol², Sorin Mocanu³, Madalina Tudose³, Daniela C Culita³, Andrei Kuncser⁴, Petre Ionita¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, 90 Panduri, 050663 Bucharest, Romania.
² National Institute for Lasers, Plasma and Radiation Physics, 077125 Magurele, Romania.
³ Institute of Physical Chemistry, 202 Spl. Independentei, 050663 Bucharest, Romania.
⁴ National Institute of Materials Physics, 077125 Magurele, Romania.

Abstract

Gold nanoparticles (~10 nm) were deposited on titanium dioxide nanoparticles (~21 nm) and the material obtained was characterized using IR, UV-Vis, N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherm, DLS, EDS (EDX), TEM, XPS, and XRD techniques. It was found that the methylene blue dye is degraded in the presence of this material when using hydrogen peroxide as the oxidant. Tests were performed at 2, 4, 6, and 24 h, with hydrogen peroxide contents varying from 1 to 5 mg/mL. Longer exposure time and a higher content of oxidant led to the degradation of methylene blue dye at up to 90%. The material can be reused several times with no loss of activity.

Keywords: environmental remediation; gold; hydrogen peroxide; nanoparticle; titania.