Photocatalytic Degradation of Atrazine under Visible Light Using Novel Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 Nanocomposites

In this work, a novel as well as an efficient photocatalyst based Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 nanoparticles have been prepared for the photocatalytic degradation of atrazine using the hydrothermal technique. In order to measure the chemical composition as well as the phase of the novel nanoparticles, different characterization techniques were applied to confirm their structures. Furthermore, the percent of Ag in the Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 nanoparticles has been investigated on the properties of Mg4Ta2O9 (physical and chemical). The phase of new Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 was confirmed via XRD data comparing with pure Mg4Ta2O9 phase. The images of the morphologies for all samples were studied using TEM with pore size distribution around 24 nm for 2.0 wt.% Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 nanocomposite. The new Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 nanoparticles have been applied for atrazine degradation using photocatalytic method. Due to the high BET surface area and low band gap, the nanoparticles with 2.0 wt.% of Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 display the best photocatalyst efficiency for atrazine degradation. Moreover, the application and the limitation of the photodegradation process were estimated. Different conditions effect on atrazine degradation such as dosages of photocatalyst and concentration of atrazine were investigated. The ability of 2.0 wt.% Ag@Mg4Ta2O9 for atrazine degradation was reused for many times with the same efficiency.