Nano silver-iron-reduced graphene oxide modified titanium dioxide photocatalyst for the remediation of organic dye in water systems

Abstract

Drinking water with high concentrations of inorganic and organic contaminants can cause adverse health defects. Specifically methyl orange dye is an organic water contaminant that has been known (along with others like methyl blue etc.) to have an increase in our water systems over the past few years due to increasing demand in industrial processes. It is therefore of utmost importance to remediate organic contaminants and ultimately enable prevention. The contaminants can be removed by photocatalysis. Anatase TiO2 is known for its photocatalytic degradation of environmental pollutants and photoelectro-chemical conversion of solar energy. However its application is limited since it is a wide band gap semiconductor, (Eg = 3.2 eV). The following study deals with the enhancement of the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 for remediation of organic water contaminants.