Preparation of Ag doped MgO for electrochemical sensing and degradation of the resorcinol

Pollutants are continually being released into the land, water, and air around the world as a result of the high levels of human activity and urbanisation, which cause a rapid an increase in the growth of pollution. To meet the complex specifications needed for the separation of these contaminants regarding selectivity, sensitivity and limit of detection using various nanoparticles, researchers are modifying the electrodes using different nanoparticles. In this study, silver-doped magnesium oxide nanoparticles are prepared via sol–gel method and fabricated Ag-doped MgO-modified electrodes for investigating its electrochemical determination of resorcinol (RS) and RS degradation as measured with photocatalytic activity in the visible region. A number of characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), UV–Vis spectroscopy, XPS and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to confirm the optical properties, composition and morphology of synthesised Ag doped MgO nanoparticles. While the crystalline size of the synthesised nanoparticles was found to be 28 nm, the strong XRD peaks indicate the high crystallinity of the particles. The detection and quantification limits of the fabricated electrode are found to be 20.2 µM and 61.3 µM, respectively. The correlation value (R ²) was ~ 0.99. Pure resorcinol exhibits a maximum absorption peak at 283 nm in its UV–visible spectrum. From the discoloration of resorcinol within 60 min, it can be shown that the synthesised material has a capability to degrade resorcinol effectively in the presence of sodium borohydride. The synthesised Ag-doped MgO nanoparticles degraded the RS with 98% efficiency.