Siloxene: A novel 2D photocatalyst for degradation of dye molecules

Silicon based materials on 2D landscape are gaining significant interest due to their exotic properties along with well-developed processing technologies. We report use of 2D siloxene nanosheets as a potential photocatalyst for remediation of water polluted from cationic dyes. Degradation of methylene blue (MB) is used as a representative case study. Systematic studies were performed by varying reaction time, pH, material mass concentration, and dye concentration. Results suggest that adsorption mechanism is prominent over the basic pH range. Adsorption isotherms reveal that the process can be described by Langmuir model, suggesting monolayer adsorption of MB on siloxene nanosheets and pseudo second order kinetics is obeyed. Samples exhibited adsorption capacity of 8.93 mg/g of MB within equilibrium time of ∼10 min. These are also found to be effective in removal of other cationic dyes such as Azure A, Azure B and Malachite Green. Siloxene nanosheets are expected to open a new avenue for efficient remediation for treatment of textile effluents by adsorption under diffuse light.