Synthesis and tailoring the morphological, optical, electronic and photodegradation characteristics of PS-PC/MnO2-SiC quaternary nanostructures

摘要

This work aims to fabricate of manganese oxide (MnO2)/silicon carbide (SiC) nanostructures doped polystyrene (PS)-polycarbonate (PC) blend as promising nanomaterials to utilize in photo-degradation, photonics and optical fields with low cost, lightweight, small content of nanoparticles and excellent properties compared to other nanomaterials. The morphological, optical, electronic and photo-degradation properties of PS-PC/MnO2-SiC nanocomposites were investigated. The surface morphology of PS-PC/MnO2-SiC nano composites was analyzed by optical microscope (OM) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) which showed good homogeneous of MnO2-SiC NPs inside the polymeric matrix. The optical characteristics of PS-PC/MnO2-SiC nanocomposites showed that the absorbance increased to 97.58 at wavelength (lambda = 260 nm) when the concentration of MnO2/SiC NPs reached (5.2 wt). The transmittance decreased to 10.57 at lambda = 260 nm, and the energy band gaps decreased for both allowed and forbidden indirect transitions about 53.86 and 94.97, respectively. The pure PS/PC blend and PS-PC/ MnO2-SiC nanocomposites were used to analyze the photocatalytic degradation of MO dye. It was found that PS-PC/MnO2-SiC nanocomposites quickly changed the MO colour when exposed to UV-Irradiation with photo-degradation ratio about 54.05 within 90 min at 5.2 wt MnO2/SiC NPs and this reaction's first-order rate constant was determined to be 0.0088 min(-1). The results of the present work showed that PS-PC/MnO2-SiC nanocomposites have practical characteristics in terms of photo-degradation activity against harmful dyes and that these nanocomposites may be used for wastewater treatment and could help resolve environmental protection issues.