Experimental and theoretical investigation of WO3/MnO2 nanocomposites synthesized via co-precipitation method for environmental applications

Industrial wastes have become major reasons of agricultural and environmental damages, as they are mostly released without any purification. Photocatalytic wastewater treatment is one of the most efficient methods for removal of dyes and pharmaceuticals. Here we report synthesis of WO3/MnO2 nanomaterials using co-precipitation method to evaluate the optimizations in their characteristic properties, photocatalytic and antimicrobial performances. UV–Vis spectroscopy confirmed the bandgap tuning in synthesized materials, whereas the PL spectroscopy confirmed the successful reduction in charges recombination rates. The XRD spectroscopy and BET analysis proved the reduction in crystallite size and enhancement in specific surface area. The evaluations provided optimized characteristics for WO3/MnO2, which showed 96.13% and 86.62% degradation of MB and levofloxacin in 175 min. It showed 15 mm inhibition zone for E. coli and 17 mm for S. aureus bacterial strain, respectively, and 15.5 mm for R. necatrix and 17.5 mm for Fusarium spp. Fungi, respectively. COMSOL Multiphysics Simulations provided validations for the experimental results against levofloxacin. This provided the potential of WO3/MnO2 composite to be used as a candidate material for environmental remediation.