Photocatalytic Activity of Silicon Nanowires Decorated with PbS Nanoparticles Deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition for Efficient Wastewater Treatment

Faisal K Algethami; Khaled Trabelsi; Anouar Hajjaji; Mohamed B Rabha; Lotfi Khezami; Mohamed R Elamin; Brahim Bessais; My Ali El Khakani

doi:10.3390/ma15144970

Photocatalytic Activity of Silicon Nanowires Decorated with PbS Nanoparticles Deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition for Efficient Wastewater Treatment

Materials (Basel). 2022 Jul 17;15(14):4970. doi: 10.3390/ma15144970.

Authors

Faisal K Algethami¹, Khaled Trabelsi², Anouar Hajjaji², Mohamed B Rabha³, Lotfi Khezami¹, Mohamed R Elamin¹, Brahim Bessais², My Ali El Khakani⁴

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry Department, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), P.O. Box 90905, Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia.
² Laboratoire de Photovoltaïque, Centre de Recherches et des Technologies de l'Energie, Technopôle de Borj-Cédria, BP 95 Hammam-Lif, Tunis 2050, Tunisia.
³ Laboratoire de Nanomatériaux et Systèmes pour Energies Renouvelables, Centre de Recherches et des Technologies de l'Energie, Technopôle de Borj-Cédria, BP 95 Hammam-Lif, Tunis 2050, Tunisia.
⁴ Centre Énergie Matériaux et Télécommunications (INRS-EMT), Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), 1650 Boulevard Lionel Boulet, Varennes, QC J3X 1S2, Canada.

Abstract

The present work aims to study the photocatalytic properties of nanohybrids composed of silicon nanowires (SiNWs) decorated with PbS nanoparticles (NPs). The elaborated material was intended to be utilized in wastewater treatment. The SiNWs were elaborated from the Metal Assisted Chemical Etching route (MACE), while the PbS NPs were deposited at room temperature onto SiNWs using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The influence of decorating SiNWs (having different lengths) with PbS-NPs on their structural, morphological, optoelectronic, and photocatalytic properties was scrutinized. PbS/SiNWs nanohybrids exhibited enhanced photocatalytic degradation towards Black Amido (BA) dye for 20 µm SiNWs length and 0.2% of BA volume concentration. These optimized conditions may insinuate that this nanocomposite-like structure is a promising efficient photocatalytic systems contender, cost-effective, and recyclable for organic compound purification from wastewaters.

Keywords: PbS nanoparticles; photocatalytic degradation; pulsed laser deposition; silicon nanowires.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia, Grant No. (20-13-12-029).