Preparation of Materials Based on Metal Carbonate Nanoparticles for Photodegradation of Organic Pollutants

Abstract

The increasing demand for efficient and sustainable methods of environmental remediation highlights the need for advanced materials capable of addressing complex challenges, such as water pollution. Nanoparticles, with their unique physicochemical properties, have emerged as promising candidates for tackling these issues. In this paper, nanoparticles of selected metal carbonates (ZnCO₃, Ag₂CO₃, CuCO₃, Ag₂CO₃-ZnCO₃, CuCO₃-ZnCO₃) were prepared and characterized using XRD, SEM, SEM-EDS, STEM, FTIR, and BET methods. The average particle sizes ranged from 15.2 nm (for CuCO₃) to 87.7 nm (for CuCO₃-ZnCO₃), and the surface area was in the range of 7.8 m²/g (for Ag₂CO₃) to 55.5 m²/g (for CuCO₃), depending on the composition. The resulting nanoparticles were incorporated into a silicon-based polymer coating to investigate their potential application properties. The photocatalytic activity of both pure nanoparticles and those embedded in the polymer coating was tested for the degradation of an organic dye methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution (initial MB concentration: 10 mg/dm³) under ultraviolet (UV) radiation over a period of 60 min. The results showed that the UV photocatalysis using carbonate nanoparticles effectively degraded the methylene blue dye, with the highest efficiency of 99.88% observed for Ag₂CO₃-ZnCO₃ in a powder form. Notably, the nanoparticles retained their high photocatalytic activity after encapsulation in the polymer coating, with Ag₂CO₃ achieving the highest efficiency of 91.67% in the composite material. The study confirms the successful synthesis of photocatalytically active nanoparticles that retain their activity when incorporated into a polymer matrix.