Photocatalytic removal of alizarin red and photoinhibition of microbes in the presence of surfactant and Bio-template mediated Ag/SnO2/Nb2O5-SiO2 nanocomposite

Pathogenic microbes and alizarin red being considered as toxic and harmful for human as well as aquatic life and its water contamination can lead to different sorts of diseases. Present study focuses on the syn-thesis of Ag/SnO2/Nb2O5-SiO2 by new green hydrothermal protocol. UV-vis spectroscopy, FTIR, HRTEM, SEM, EDX, B.E.T and XPS techniques helped in the determination of reaction completion, different opti-mized conditions, composition, morphology, geometry and average size of the synthesized Ag/SnO2/ Nb2O5-SiO2 nanocomposites. The degradation of alizarin red dye was tested in order to investigate the photocatalytic activity of Ag/SnO2/Nb2O5-SiO2 nanocomposite. In a batch reaction system in the presence of fluorescent light photocatalytic experiment was performed. It was verified that at high concentration of dye the photocatalyst degradation ability was affected but increasing the photocatalyst amount helped in the enhancement of dye degradation. Scavenger test verified gave information about the degradation mechanism. The results showed that 99 % dye was degraded in only 20 min. The synthesized nanomate-rial was also tested for photoinhibition of Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The result shows that the synthesized material has high efficiency against B. subtilis (17 (+/- 0.03) mm) and E. coli (15 (+/- 0.05)). The production of ROS was also examined in the presence of light and nanomaterial. It was also come to know that by combination of these metals and metal oxides helped in the improve-ment of photocatalytic activity. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In this study, Ag/SnO2/Nb2O5-SiO2 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by a new green hydrothermal protocol, and their reaction completion, optimized conditions, composition, morphology, geometry, and average size were characterized using various techniques. The nanocomposites exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity, with 99% degradation of alizarin red dye achieved within 20 minutes. Furthermore, the synthesized material showed high efficiency in inhibiting the growth of Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli, and the combination of light and nanomaterial enhanced the production of reactive oxygen species, thereby improving the photocatalytic activity.