Facile synthesis and investigation of Co3O4-ZnO-Ag nanocomposites as efficient photocatalysts for decomposition of direct yellow dye

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Advanced Materials Research Center, Department of Materials Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

/amnc.2019.8.30.4

Abstract

Direct yellow is one of the contaminations in the wastewater, which is dangerous for environmental health. In the present study, Co3O4-ZnO-Ag nanocomposite was synthesized as a photocatalyst using two-stage precipitation method. The synthesized powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy, differential thermal and weight loss analysis, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. XRD patterns showed that the size of ZnO crystallites increase with increasing the silver content. SEM micrographs showed that the size of particles in the sample with 3% silver was in the range of 20-300 nm. UV-Vis absorption spectrum of the prepared powders revealed that absorption in the visible region increases by adding metallic Ag. Calculation of the band gap energy indicated that by increasing the Ag content, the band gap energy of the samples decreases. Investigation of photocatalyst behavior for degradation of direct yellow dye exhibited that by adding 3% Ag to Co3O4-ZnO nanocomposite, the degradation efficiency improved from 71% to 89%. However further increase of Ag reduced the degradation kinetics, because Ag nanoparticles act as sites for accumulation of electrons and recombination of electron-hole pair.

Keywords

References

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