Facile green synthesis of novel tantalum doped tungsten trioxide for photocatalytic degradation: Correlation with COMSOL simulation

Iqra Maryam; Tahir Iqbal; Asad Syed; Ali H Bahkali; Aqsa Tehseen; Sumera Afsheen; Muhammad Shehzad Sultan

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2024.124191

Facile green synthesis of novel tantalum doped tungsten trioxide for photocatalytic degradation: Correlation with COMSOL simulation

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2024 Jun 5:314:124191. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124191. Epub 2024 Mar 26.

Authors

Iqra Maryam¹, Tahir Iqbal², Asad Syed³, Ali H Bahkali³, Aqsa Tehseen⁴, Sumera Afsheen⁵, Muhammad Shehzad Sultan⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan. Electronic address: maryamiqra82@gmail.com.
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan. Electronic address: tahir.awan@uog.edu.pk.
³ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico - Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00925, USA.

PMID: 38565046
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2024.124191

Abstract

The facilegreen synthesis techniqueis becoming more and more important, and it has been proposed as a potential substitute for chemical techniques. The current study describes a low-cost, environmentally friendly method for producing tungsten trioxide (WO₃) and tantalum (Ta) doped WO₃nanoparticles that uses 15 % (w/v) Azadirachta indica (Neem) leaf extract and different concentrations of Ta dopant (1 to 5 %) due to its well-matched ionic radius with WO₃. Various techniques FESEM, TEM, EDX, BET, UV-Vis and PL, XRD, and FTIR were used to illustrate the morphological, elemental, optical, structural, and vibrational analysis of the synthesized nanoparticles respectively. Interestingly, the band gap was significantly reduced to 1.88 eV by the addition of a dopant element. For 3 % Ta/WO₃, the average particle size was also reduced to 31.6 nm. The synthesized WO₃nanoparticles employed in the current study have been used for photocatalytic activitypurposes. Methylene blue (MB), one of the principal water pollutants, was degraded more quickly by the synthesized Ta/WO₃nanoparticles when exposed to UV radiation. Among them, 3 % Ta/WO₃ gives significantly higher photodegradation 89 % attributed to the Burstein-Moss effect. The significant output of optimized nano-photocatalyst has been observed from the trapping experiment and reusability test. Furthermore, Zeta potential and TOC analysis have been taken to check the stability and mineralization performance. Additionally, the results of the simulation that was carried out using the finite element analysis approach in the RF module of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a are quite similar to the experimental findings. This simulation method made it easier for readers to understand the numerous aspects of the photocatalytic process that has been discussed here.

Keywords: COMSOL multiphysics 5.3a; Green synthesis; MB; Photocatalytic degradation; Ta/WO(3) NPs; Tantalum; Tungsten trioxide.