Facile Green Synthesis of ZnO Supported on Exfoliated Graphite for Photocatalytic Degradation of Dye under UV and Visible-Light Irradiation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute

2 Botany and Microbiology Dept., Faculty of Science Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

Visible light-responsive photocatalysis is a green and efficient wastewater treatment technique, and carbon materials-based semiconductors have demonstrated excellent performance in this area. In this work, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are synthesized via a simple, economic and green method using Streptomyces microbial extract as non-toxic reducing and capping agent. The prepared ZnO is supported on the exfoliated graphite (ZnO/EG) by a simple mixing method. Various techniques including XRD, FTIR, DLS, Zeta, BET, TEM and optical properties of the prepared photocatalysts were elucidated. The results reveal that the ZnO particles are well dispersed on the EG in the ZnO/EG sample. Also, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy revealed that the ZnO/EG nanocomposite possesses an increased light absorption toward the visible light region, as a result of the presence of the EG. The photocatalytic performance of the prepared photocatalysts was discussed using Malachite Green (MG) dye under both UV and visible light. The effect of dye concentration, photocatalyst dose, pH and different scavengers was studied. The activity of the ZnO/EG (94.06 %, rate, k = 0.0184 min-1) is enhanced under visible light rather than ZnO alone (50.05 %, rate, k = 0.0030 min-1), which will be a promising and competing candidate for wastewater treatment.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Egyptian Journal of Chemistry
Volume 65, Issue 132 - Serial Number 13
Special Issue: Chemistry and Global Challenges (Part B)
December 2022
Pages 557-569

Files

Cited by

History

  • Receive Date: 19 April 2022
  • Revise Date: 11 May 2022
  • Accept Date: 18 May 2022

Share

How to cite

Statistics