Ultrasonic assisted fabrication of silver tungstate encrusted polypyrrole nanocomposite for effective photocatalytic and electrocatalytic applications

Ultrasonication is an emerging and evergreen technique for the efficient synthesis of the catalytically active heterostructured materials. In-situ one-pot ultrasonic-assisted synthesis method was demonstrated in this work for the fabrication of silver tungstate encrusted polypyrrole nanocomposite using semi-automatic ultrasonic probe maintained at 34 degrees C/50 kHz ultrasonic frequency and at 150 W ultrasonic power. This material retains enhanced optical, electrical, morphological properties, photocatalytic behavior in photodegradation of congo red dye, tetracycline drug and its electrochemical sensing potential for the effective determination of a broad spectrum of antibacterial drug, nitrofurazone. Optical properties were investigated using UltraViolet-Visible diffuse reflectance spectral (UV-VIS DRS) data along with Tauc's bandgap energy calculations. The morphological properties were examined using FESEM and TEM micrographs. All the PXRD and XPS details prove the effective distribution of PPy on the surface of Ag2WO4 rods with the help of powerful ultrasonic assistance. PPy acted as a support for nucleation and growth of Ag2WO4 and an inhibitor of phase transformations. Ag2WO4/PPy exhibits great photocatalytic behavior while comparing with pure PPy and Ag2WO4 in the degradation of carcinogenic dye congo red and antibiotic drug tetracycline. In addition to that, Ag2WO4/PPy modified GCE exposed a widespread linear range from 0.1 to 107 mu M along with a very low detection limit of 12 nM and huge sensitivity of 1.74 mu A mu M-1 cm(-2) in the electrochemical determination of nitrofurazone.