Abstract
Here, silica sand–supported heterojunction composite of nano zinc oxide (nZnO) and graphene oxide nanosheet (nZnO-GO@SS) was prepared, and its potential as an efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine-B (Rh-B) under sunlight was demonstrated. Transmission electron microscopy confirmed the uniform distribution of spherically shaped nZnO of average size of approximately 8 nm over graphene oxide nanosheet (GO) in the composites. Photodegradation yields of 95.3% and 97.5% for 100 ppm of MB and Rh-B dye within 150 and 220 min, respectively, were achieved under sunlight by the prepared nanocatalyst (nZnO-GO), while sand microparticle–supported nanocatalyst (nZnO-GO@SS) demonstrated faster degradation of MB and Rh-B, i.e., within 120 and 160 min, respectively. Furthermore, when the recyclability of the photocatalyst was studied, the nZnO-GO exhibited more than 80% degradation efficiency after five cycles for both the dyes and nZnO-GO@SS demonstrated 10% higher (~90%) removal capability after five cycles of reuse. Furthermore, the antibacterial assay showed complete inactivation of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacterial strain by nZnO-GO@SS. Hence, our proposed strategy for the removal of toxic dyes from the aquatic environment under sunlight proved that sand microparticle–supported nanocatalyst (nZnO-GO@SS) might be a superior, cost-effective, and suitable photocatalytic system for industrial applications toward toxic dye removal and decontamination from industrial wastewater.
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Acknowledgements
The authors sincerely thank the Science and Engineering Research Board, Government of India, for financial support (Grant No. SERB/F/4290/2016-17) and the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. for providing the infrastructural facility for carrying out this work.
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The National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, provided the infrastructural facility for carrying out this work. The financial support to the researchers was provided by MHRD. Other experiment oriented financial support was provided by SERB, India (Grant No. SERB/F/4290/2016-17).
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U. Mondal: conducted investigation, analysis and writing the original draft. Sohel Das: conducted partial investigation and analysis. Prathap S: conducted partial investigation S. Paul (also corresponding author): conceptualization, supervising the work, analysis, checking the draft, finalizing and responsible for the submission of the work to the journal, responsible for the overall procedural activities.
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Mondal, U.S., Das, S., Somu, P. et al. Silica sand–supported nano zinc oxide–graphene oxide composite induced rapid photocatalytic decolorization of azo dyes under sunlight and improved antimicrobial activity. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 17226–17244 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23248-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23248-6