Study on degradation of methyl orange-an azo dye by silver nanoparticles using UV-Visible spectroscopy

In this paper, we report degradation of methyl orange, an azo dye through silver nanoparticles, with the help of UV-Visible spectroscopy. These silver nanoparticles have been found to act as a potential catalyst for the degradation of methyl orange in the presence of sodium borohydride. Rate constants for the catalyzed and uncatalyzed reaction have been determined. The catalyzed reaction spectrum shows a sudden fall in absorbance value confirming catalytic effect of Ag nanoparticles. No significant change in absorbance in case of uncatalyzed reaction is observed, indicating very slow reduction rate of methyl orange.