Environmentally Benign Organic Dye Conversion under UV Light through TiO<sub>2</sub>-ZnO Nanocomposite
Sandip M. Deshmukh,
Sudhir S. Arbuj,
Santosh B. Babar,
Shoyebmohamad F. Shaikh,
Asiya M. Tamboli,
Nguyen Tam Nguyen Truong,
Chang-Duk Kim,
Sanjay M. Khetre,
Mohaseen S. Tamboli,
Sambhaji R. Bamane
Affiliations
Sandip M. Deshmukh
Department of Chemistry, VNBN Mahavidyalaya, Shirala 415408, Maharashtra, India
Sudhir S. Arbuj
Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology, Materials of Renewable Energy and Sensor Division, Panchawati Off Pahsan Road, Pune 411008, Maharashtra, India
Santosh B. Babar
Department of Chemistry, VNBN Mahavidyalaya, Shirala 415408, Maharashtra, India
Shoyebmohamad F. Shaikh
Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Asiya M. Tamboli
School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea
Nguyen Tam Nguyen Truong
School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea
Chang-Duk Kim
Department of Physics, Kyungpook National University, 80 Daehakro, Bukgu, Daegu 41566, Korea
Sanjay M. Khetre
Nanomaterials Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Dahiwadi College, Dahiwadi 415508, Maharashtra, India
Mohaseen S. Tamboli
School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, 280 Daehak-ro, Gyeongsan 38541, Korea
Sambhaji R. Bamane
Department of Chemistry, Sushila Shankarrao Gadhave Mahavidyalaya, Khandala 412802, Maharashtra, India
In this work, we developed a very simple and novel approach for synthesizing TiO2-ZnO nanocomposites via the urea-assisted thermal decomposition of titanium oxysulphate and zinc acetate at different weight ratios. The synthesized nanocomposite samples were studied by means of HR-TEM, XRD, STEM, UV–Vis DRS, PL and EDS. The observed results demonstrate that the TiO2-ZnO nanocomposite consists of an anatase crystal phase of TiO2 with a crystallite size of 10–15 nm. Combined characterization, including UV–Vis DRS, STEM, EDS and HR-TEM, revealed the successful formation of a heterojunction between TiO2 and ZnO and an improvement in UV spectrum absorption. The photocatalytic activity was explored using MO degradation under ultraviolet light illumination. The results of the optimized TiO2-ZnO nanocomposite show excellent photocatalytic activity and photostability over a number of degradation reaction cycles. In addition, the current approach has immense potential to be used as a proficient method for synthesizing mixed metal oxide nanocomposites.
