Electrocatalytically Inspired Silver Nanomaterial for Catalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

Nanotechnology plays a pivotal role in environmental remediation processes. Among important noble metal nanostructures, silver nanoparticles (NPs) are well studied for various applications including antibacterial and catalytic properties. The present chapter discusses the development of simple and environment friendly Schiff bases assisted synthesis of silver nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of methyl blue (MB) dye. Spherical silver nanoparticles were synthesized using precursors silver nitrate and Schiff base in propylene glycol. The reaction was carried out at 160 °C under inert atmosphere. Various physicochemical techniques viz. UV-Vis spectroscopy, powder X-Ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterise the synthesized NPs. Results suggested the formation of monodisperse spherical nanoparticles of average size of 50 nm. As synthesized silver nanoparticles was used successfully for the catalytic degradation of methylene blue dye. The 84% degradation of methylene blue was observed within 60 min, indicating the potential of synthesized silver NPs for water remediation applications.