Silver nanoparticle-intercalated cotton fiber for catalytic degradation of aqueous organic dyes for water pollution mitigation

Authors: Hillyer, Matthew; Jordan, Jacobs; Nam, Sunghyun; Easson, Michael; Condon, Brian

Submitted to: Nanomaterials
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/4/2022
Publication Date: 5/10/2022
Citation: Hillyer, M.B., Jordan, J.H., Nam, S., Easson, M.W., Condon, B.D. 2022. Silver nanoparticle-intercalated cotton fiber for catalytic degradation of aqueous organic dyes for water pollution mitigation. Nanomaterials. 12(10):1621. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12101621.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12101621

Interpretive Summary: Azo dyes are commonly used in textile color processing for their wide array of vibrant colors. However, in recent years these dyes attracted concern in wastewater management for their toxicity to humans and the environment. In the present work, researchers remediated water contaminated with azo dyes using silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedded on cotton fabric as catalysts in a reductive degradation method. Three azo dyes: Methyl Orange (MO), Congo Red (CR), and Chicago Sky Blue 6B (CSBB) were investigated. The azo degradation was monitored by UV/vis spectroscopy, degradation capacity and turnover frequencies (TOF). For their high reusability while maintaining high catalytic efficiency of >95% degradation after 10 cycles, Ag NPs immobilized within cotton fabric have promising potential toward eco-friendly bio-embedded catalysts.

Technical Abstract: The use of azo dyes has been commonly used in the coloring of commercial products for their wide array of vibrant colors. However, azo-moiety containing dyes have become a concern for wastewater management for their toxicity to humans and the environment. To remediate industrial effluents, there has been significant progress towards the use of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) as catalysts in the reductive degradation of three azo-containing dyes by reducing and breaking the -N=N- bond. This study investigates the viability of a cotton-supported Ag NP catalyst as an efficient and recyclable catalyst in the degradation of three azo dyes: Methyl Orange (MO), Congo Red (CR), and Chicago Sky Blue 6B (CSBB). The reaction was monitored by UV-visible spectroscopy using the –N=N– absorbance bands at 464, 496 and 618 nm for MO, CR, and CSBB, respectively. The Ag NP-cotton catalyst exhibited excellent degradation capacity for the dye, i.e., MO (96.4% in 30 min), CR (96.5 % in 18.5 min) and CSBB (99.8% in 21 min), with turnover frequencies (TOF) of 0.064, 0.082 and 0.056 min-1, respectively, using 0.400 g loading of catalyst for 100 mL of 25 mg L-1 dye. For their high reusability while maintaining high catalytic efficiency of >95% degradation after 10 cycles, Ag NPs mobilized within cotton fabric have promising potential toward eco-friendly bio-supported catalysts.