Novel synthesis of Cu2ZnAl2O4 nanostructures for photocatalytic and electrochemical sensor applications

Abstract

Hybrid nanostructured materials currently offer a potential approach for a variety of applications due to improvements in their physio-chemical characteristics. Techniques for XRD, TEM-HRTEM, SAED, and UV-DRS were used to characterize the Cu2ZnAl2O4 (CZA) material. Without any secondary phases and with an average crystallite size of 40 ​nm, X-ray diffraction pattern examination demonstrates the increased crystalline structure. A highly crystalline, polydisperse CZA nanostructure was visible using TEM-HRTEM and SAED. The CZA nanostructure's light-absorbing behavior is presented by UV-DRS analysis, which found that the predicted bandgap energy was 5.0 ​eV. In this article, we describe an easy chemical synthesis of a hybrid CZA nanostructure that works well as a catalyst to break down the acid red 88 (AR-88) dye under UV, sunlight, and low light conditions. Additionally, it was studied to determine how to modify the working electrode's surface to enable the detection of lead and tin metal ions. With 93.1% of degradation and comparison work on decolorizing AR-88 dye in the presence of both sunlight and darkness, CZA nanostructure was looked at as a potential catalyst for the decolorization of AR-88 dye. By using graphite electrode paste and cyclic voltammetry to analyze the synthesized sample in 1 ​N KCl, it was discovered that it had outstanding redox reaction and lead and tin detection capabilities.

Keywords

• CZA nanostructure
• AR-88 dye
• Electrochemical sensor
• Lead
• Tin