Nano-Architected Titania/Gold@GO Nanosheets for Sonocatalytic Degradation of Azo Dyes in Textile Wastewater

Environmental pollution, a huge issue on a global scale, poses serious risks to both human health and the natural environment. There is an urgent need for effective and reliable detection and degradation methods that focus on the evolution of environmental and trace contaminants. Photochemical methods such as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and sono-catalytic degradation can be used to accelerate the detection and degradation of toxic dyes. In the present work, a titania/gold/graphene oxide nanocomposite (ATG) was investigated as a potential dual substrate for SERS sensing and sono-catalytic degradation of pollutants. The nanosize distribution (6-12nm) of ATG was determined by a solvothermal route. X-ray diffraction pattern illustrates the anatase phase of the titanium dioxide. Sonocatalytic degradation was envisaged using Raman spectroscopy. The effectiveness of ATG as a sono-catalytic substrate and SERS sensor was first evaluated using commercial dyes, such as malachite green and bismarck brown. Furthermore, research has been conducted on the harmful elements in actual textile effluents (TE). The N=N and C-N bands found in the SERS spectra of TE are useful indicators of the presence of carcinogenic azo-dye impurities. The enhancement factor was achieved to be 5.77×1012with the limit of detection (LOD) as 6.0×10−12M. Additionally, the sono-catalysis of ATG was evaluated for the elimination of these dye pollutants in TE. Following sono-catalysis by ATG, a high degradation rate constant of approximately 8.44 ×10-3/min was noted in TE with 89% of degradation efficiency. The enhanced SERS detection and sono-catalytic degradation of synthetic dyes and actual effluent stem from the combined action of’ plasmonic characteristics of Au NPs, anatase TiO2, and GO's via π-π stacking nature of GO.