Synthesis of novel biodegradable starch-PMA and Ag@starch-PMA polymer composite for boosting charge separation ability and superior photocatalytic performance

One of the main issues confronting researchers is the removal of hazardous organic dyes from industrial effluent. In this work, a biodegradable starch-based polymer (starch-PMA) and silver blend (Ag@starch-PMA) nanocomposite were developed by a free radical process and employed as adsorbents for efficiently removing the hazardous dyes from industrial wastewater. The synthesized polymer adsorbent’s ability to bind to the methylene blue dye in water was tested under optimal conditions. The techniques, including FTIR, indicate the functional groups, TGA/DTG provide the thermal degradation of Ag@starch-PMA (76%) and starch-PMA (90%) at 520 °C and 500 °C, respectively. The surface morphology of the composites was investigated using SEM, and their biodegradation was examined using the soil burial technique. Further, in the adsorption process, parameters like adsorbent dose (0.15 g), pH range (2–12), and dye solution concentration (10 ppm) are optimized. The experimental data indicate the adsorption efficiency of Ag@starch-PMA (95%) and starch-PMA (92%) under the basic pH (8.4–10.4) and further remains constant. The q _max of starch-PMA (522.7834 mg/g) and Ag@starch-PMA (541.2563 mg/g) were assessed by Freundlich adsorption isotherm. In addition, linear fitting kinetic data of starch-PMA (R ² = 0.8619) and Ag@starch-PMA (R ² = 0.9898) showed that the adsorbents follow the pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order of reaction, respectively. A unique adsorbent for the removal of MB dye from an aqueous solution may therefore be found in the resultant nanocomposite.