Aluminium and fluorine doped tungsten oxide hybrid nanoparticles via simplified soft chemical route for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

In this investigation, the simplified chemical method was employed to generate pure, aluminium and fluorine doped tungsten oxide (WO3) nanoparticles in diverse doping ratios of 0 at%, 3 at%, 20 at% and 3 + 20 at%. The PXRD results demonstrate that the pure WO3 and individual doped aluminium and fluorine have a monoclinic crystalline structure, which is changed to hexagonal when concurrently aluminium and fluorine doped WO3 nanoparticles. The crystallite size lies between 18 and 31 nm. The surface morphology of prepared nanoparticles was depicted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). It shows a regular and rod-shaped surface. Optical aspects of samples were studied by UV–Vis spectroscopy and the bandgap values were compared with two different types of aspects (K–M plot and dR/dλ) both results are similar to each other; they lie between 2.6 and 2.8 eV. The presence of vibrational modes and elements was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and EDS analysis. X-ray photoelectron spectrophotometry was used to analyze the chemical composition. The synthesized nanoparticles were evaluated for photocatalytic activity. Under photocatalytic studies, the AFWO nanocomposites have a greater degradation rate of about 96% and better stability. In the current study, it will be discussed how the photocatalytic process removes contaminants from water.