Piezocatalytic dye degradation using Bi2O3-ZnO-B2O3 glass-nanocomposites

Abstract

The presence of toxic compounds in waste leads to unfavorable hazardous properties, there is an urgent urge for the remediation of environmental contamination. This work focuses on the removal of organic pollutants from the water. Piezocatalytic properties of transparent glass nanocomposites of Bi2ZnB2O7 (BBZO) were studied for water-cleaning application. Melt quenching followed by heat treatment of fabricated glass-nanocomposites were able to degrade different organic dyes. To study the microstructure of the samples under consideration, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) were performed. To get the elemental composition of the glass nanocomposite samples, XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) was utilized. Methylene blue (MB) dye was used as a model dye for degradation, and it is found that heat-treated glass nanocomposite sample at 475 °C for 1 h (HT/475 °C/1hr) gives maximum dye degradation of 78% under 240 min of ultrasonication with a degradation rate of 0.0065min−1. Furthermore, an obtained by-product from degraded dye was used to experiment to study phytotoxicity assessment using brown gram seeds and it has been found that treated water with BBZO HT/475 °C/1hr sample gives less phytotoxicity of water (Germination Index is found to be 88%).

Keywords

• Glasses
• Nanocrystals
• Piezocatalysis
• Crystallization
• Phytotoxicity