Gold Nanoparticles Decorated Borophene Nanosheets: An Efficient Catalyst for Ultrafast Chemical Dye Degradation of Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B

Abstract Gold nanoparticles decorated borophene nanosheets (AuNPs‐BNS) have been synthesized in the absence of external reducing agents, stabilizers, and templates, and demonstrate their catalytic activity towards methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (Rh‐B) as model organic compounds for ultrafast dye degradation. The AuNPs‐BNS catalyst (average spherical particle size of 7.86 ± 2 nm) decolorizes the MB and Rh‐B within 50 and 70 s, respectively. Furthermore, the time‐dependent UV–visible spectra (30 µL catalyst) indicate first‐order kinetics with rate constants of 0.0628 ± 0.008 s −1 for MB and 0.0496 ± 0.002 s −1 for Rh‐B, which is significantly faster compared to existing reports. Moreover, the dye degradation efficiency of ∼97% for MB and Rh‐B was achieved in a very short timescale. Besides, turnover frequency (TOF) is also calculated, and the obtained values of 4660 h −1 (MB) and 2289 h −1 (Rh‐B) suggest the excellent catalytic activity of the AuNPs‐BNS catalyst for efficient dye degradation under ambient conditions for clean water applications.