The elimination of hazardous industrial pollutants from aqueous solutions is an emerging area of scientific research and a worldwide problem. An efficient catalyst, Ag–CuO was synthesized for the degradation of methylene blue, the chemical sensing of ammonia. A simple novel synthetic method was reported in which new plant material Capparis decidua was used for the reduction and stabilization of the synthesized nanocatalyst. A Varying amount of Ag was doped into CuO to optimize the best catalyst that met the required objectives. Through this, the Ag–CuO nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, SEM, HR-TEM, EDX, and FTIR techniques. The mechanism of increased catalytic activity with Ag doping involves the formation of charge sink and suppression of drop back probability of charge from conduction to valance band. Herein, 2.7 mol % Ag–CuO exhibited better catalytic activities and it was used through subsequent catalytic experiments. The experimental conditions such as pH, catalyst dose, analyte initial concentration, and contact time were optimized. The as-synthesized nanocomposite demonstrates an excellent degradation efficacy of MB which is 97% at pH 9. More interestingly, the as-synthesized catalyst was successfully applied for the chemical sensing of ammonia even at very low concentrations. The lower limit of detection (LLOD) also called analytic sensitivity was calculated for ammonia sensing and found to be 1.37 ppm.

从水溶液中消除有害工业污染物是一个新兴的科学研究领域，也是一个世界性的问题。 Ag-CuO 是一种高效催化剂，可用于降解亚甲基蓝（氨的化学传感）。报道了一种简单的新型合成方法，其中使用新的植物材料Capparis decidua来还原和稳定合成的纳米催化剂。将不同量的 Ag 掺杂到 CuO 中，以优化满足所需目标的最佳催化剂。通过此，Ag-CuO 纳米复合材料通过 XRD、SEM、HR-TEM、EDX 和 FTIR 技术进行了表征。 Ag掺杂提高催化活性的机制涉及电荷吸收的形成和抑制电荷从导带回落到价带的概率。其中，2.7 mol% Ag-CuO表现出更好的催化活性，并用于后续的催化实验。对pH、催化剂剂量、分析物初始浓度和接触时间等实验条件进行了优化。合成的纳米复合材料表现出优异的 MB 降解效率，在 pH 9 时为 97%。更有趣的是，合成的催化剂成功应用于氨的化学传感，即使在非常低的浓度下也是如此。计算氨传感的检测下限 (LLOD) 也称为分析灵敏度，结果为 1.37 ppm。