Green synthesis of vanadium oxide-zirconium oxide nanocomposite for the degradation of methyl orange and picloram

Abstract

The vanadium oxide-zirconium oxide nanocomposite (V _2 O _5 /ZrO _2 NC) was synthesized by green method using Daphne alpine ( D. alpine ) leaves extract. The pore size and surface area was studied by N _2 adsorption-desorption process using Brunaure-Emmett-Teller (BET) methods and S _BET was found to be 214 m ^2 g ^−1 . The crystalline nature and other crystal properties was investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and the calculated average crystallite size is 41.74 nm. The morphology of the V _2 O _5 /ZrO _2 NC was examined by scanning electron scanning microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The thermal stability was examine by thermogravimetric analysis and a total of 11.73% weight loss was observed. The optical property was studied by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and band gap was found to be 3.93 eV. The surface function group was studied the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The photocatalytic performance of V _2 O _5 /ZrO _2 NC was examined against methyl orange and picloram and 76.94% and 86% were degraded in 75 min respectively.

Keywords

• photocatalysis
• picloram
• methyl orange
• vanadium
• zirconium