TY - JOUR
T1 - Enhanced photocatalytic efficiency for methylene blue degradation using silver-incorporated CuBi2O4 Nanorods/WO3 nanoparticles heterojunction
AU - Alghamdi, Ohood A.
AU - Slimani, Yassine
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2026/3/5
Y1 - 2026/3/5
N2 - The contamination of water by organic dye pollutants presents substantial dangers to the environment and human well-being. Developing effective and sustainable methods to treat contaminated water is crucial. In this study, a 0D/1D/0D heterojunction photocatalyst, composed of Ag-modified CuBi2O4 nanorods integrated with WO3 nanoparticles, was developed to evaluate its performance in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) as a representative organic contaminant. The analytical XRD, FTIR, and EDX techniques showed the presence of the constituent phases, confirming the successful synthesis of the target materials. SEM observations showed that CuBi2O4 consisted of elongated rod-shaped particles while WO3 consisted of very tiny nanosized particles. The band gap energy of Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3 was approximately equal to 1.86 eV, suggesting that the studied system would be photocatalytically active under visible-light illumination. Photocatalytic degradation assessment experiments indicated that this 0D/1D/0D heterojunction system exhibits the highest and fastest MB photodegradation efficiency under visible light illumination. The total photodegradation efficiency is 53.6%, 56.7%, 65.6%, and 88.2% for CuBi2O4, Ag-CuBi2O4, WO3, and Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3. The derived reaction kinetic rate is 0.0190 min−1 for Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3, which is 3.8, 2.53, and 2.6 times higher than that obtained for CuBi2O4, WO3, and Ag-CuBi2O4. The findings revealed that coupling Ag-CuBi2O4 and WO3 semiconductors in the form of S-scheme heterojunction boosts the charge separation and decreases the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs. The introduced Ag, acting as an electron trap effectively, further improves the charge transfer properties. The enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light suggests that the developed Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3 (0D/1D/0D) heterojunction holds promising potential for the design of efficient and sustainable photocatalytic systems to remediate dye-contaminated wastewater.
AB - The contamination of water by organic dye pollutants presents substantial dangers to the environment and human well-being. Developing effective and sustainable methods to treat contaminated water is crucial. In this study, a 0D/1D/0D heterojunction photocatalyst, composed of Ag-modified CuBi2O4 nanorods integrated with WO3 nanoparticles, was developed to evaluate its performance in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) as a representative organic contaminant. The analytical XRD, FTIR, and EDX techniques showed the presence of the constituent phases, confirming the successful synthesis of the target materials. SEM observations showed that CuBi2O4 consisted of elongated rod-shaped particles while WO3 consisted of very tiny nanosized particles. The band gap energy of Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3 was approximately equal to 1.86 eV, suggesting that the studied system would be photocatalytically active under visible-light illumination. Photocatalytic degradation assessment experiments indicated that this 0D/1D/0D heterojunction system exhibits the highest and fastest MB photodegradation efficiency under visible light illumination. The total photodegradation efficiency is 53.6%, 56.7%, 65.6%, and 88.2% for CuBi2O4, Ag-CuBi2O4, WO3, and Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3. The derived reaction kinetic rate is 0.0190 min−1 for Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3, which is 3.8, 2.53, and 2.6 times higher than that obtained for CuBi2O4, WO3, and Ag-CuBi2O4. The findings revealed that coupling Ag-CuBi2O4 and WO3 semiconductors in the form of S-scheme heterojunction boosts the charge separation and decreases the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs. The introduced Ag, acting as an electron trap effectively, further improves the charge transfer properties. The enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light suggests that the developed Ag-CuBi2O4/WO3 (0D/1D/0D) heterojunction holds promising potential for the design of efficient and sustainable photocatalytic systems to remediate dye-contaminated wastewater.
KW - Dye degradation
KW - Heterojunction
KW - kinetic studies
KW - Photocatalysis
KW - Water treatment
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020926248
U2 - 10.1016/j.saa.2025.127065
DO - 10.1016/j.saa.2025.127065
M3 - Article
C2 - 41145086
AN - SCOPUS:105020926248
SN - 1386-1425
VL - 348
JO - Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
JF - Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
M1 - 127065
ER -
