Superior removal of hazardous dye using Ag/Au core-shell nanoparticles prepared by laser ablation

Uniform bimetallic core-shell plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) currently prepared using laser ablation in liquid (PLAL), demand materials in catalyst applications. It is a two-step method with pulsed laser ablation in liquid using gold (Au) and silver (Ag) as a bulk material. In this study, a prompt, rapid, eco-friendly and cost-effective method is presented to synthesize AuCoreAgShell and AgCoreAuShell nanoparticles. The bimetallic core-shell nanoparticles were characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), High-resolution electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and (EDS) Elementary dispersive spectroscopy images confirmed the core-shell formation. The prepared samples were spherical in shape. Dynamic light scattered (DLS) results were recorded. The optical properties of such as absorption spectroscopy in UV-Vis ranges were investigated. The as-prepared samples were used in the removal of methylene blue (MB) as a model dye pollutant under visible light. Ag and AgCoreAuShell provide 88 % and 96.3 % methylene blue (MB) removal within just 70 min. This study aims to explore bimetallic core-shell NPs properties by this approach. Moreover, the removal mechanisms of MB using core-shell nanoparticles were discussed in detail in this paper.