Microwave-assisted preparation of a silver nanoparticles/N-doped carbon dots nanocomposite and its application for catalytic reduction of rhodamine B, methyl red and 4-nitrophenol dyes

Bhagavanth Reddy G; Ramakrishna Dadigala; Rajkumar Bandi; Kondaiah Seku; Koteswararao D; Girija Mangatayaru K; Ahmed Esmail Shalan

doi:10.1039/d0ra10679h

Microwave-assisted preparation of a silver nanoparticles/N-doped carbon dots nanocomposite and its application for catalytic reduction of rhodamine B, methyl red and 4-nitrophenol dyes

RSC Adv. 2021 Jan 28;11(9):5139-5148. doi: 10.1039/d0ra10679h. eCollection 2021 Jan 25.

Authors

Bhagavanth Reddy G^{1

2}, Ramakrishna Dadigala², Rajkumar Bandi², Kondaiah Seku³, Koteswararao D⁴, Girija Mangatayaru K¹, Ahmed Esmail Shalan^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Palamuru University Mahabub Nagar Telangana 509001 India bhagavanth.g@gmail.com kgirijamangatayaru@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemistry, Osmania University Hyderabad Telangana 500007 India.
³ Departement of Engineering (Civil Section), University of Technology and Applied Sciences-Shinas Shinas 324 Sultanate of Oman.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University Hyderabad-500033 India a.shalan133@gmail.com ahmed.shalan@bcmaterials.net.
⁵ BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures Martina Casiano, UPV/EHU Science Park, Barrio Sarriena s/n Leioa 48940 Spain a.shalan133@gmail.com ahmed.shalan@bcmaterials.net.
⁶ Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI) P.O. Box 87 Helwan Cairo 11421 Egypt.

Abstract

In the current work, a silver nanoparticles/nitrogen-doped carbon dots (AgNPs/NCDs) nanocomposite was prepared by a microwave-assisted method that does not require additional reducing or stabilizing agents. Multiple analytical techniques were used to characterize the prepared nanocomposite. The nanocomposite exhibited a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption peak at 420 nm, indicating the development of AgNPs with NCDs. Further, HRTEM results confirmed the formation of the nanocomposite with the appearance of lattice fringes of both materials. Additionally, the nanocomposite did not show any precipitation even after two months of storage. The nanocomposite exhibited high catalytic activity towards the reduction of rhodamine B (RhB, 98.83%), methyl red (MR, 97.14%) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP, 99.95%) at ambient temperature. Besides, the kinetic analysis revealed that the reduction reaction followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and the calculated rate constants (k) for rhodamine B (RhB), methyl red (MR) and 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) were found to be 0.0296 s^-1, 0.0233 s^-1 and 0.029 s^-1, respectively. Moreover, it is a reusable and stable catalyst for reduction reactions up to five cycles without significant loss in catalytic activity. Finally, a plausible mechanism for the reduction of pollutants is also discussed in detail. As a whole, the prepared nanocomposite might display stunning behaviour for wastewater treatment applications.