Role of ZnO/GO nanocomposite in photocatalytic degradation of mixture of organic pollutants and antimicrobial activity

A number of carcinogenic dyes and microbial infections have negative effects on living being. These also have a detrimental effect on water quality and responsible for major health problems. ZnO/GO nanocomposites (NCs) (10 wt. % GO) is synthesized via one pot ecofriendly route. It is utilized for photocatalytic degradation of aqueous solution of Malachite green (MG), Crystal violet (CV) and first time mixture of pollutants (CV+MG) dyes in 1 : 2 ratio. These synthesized NCs are analyzed by using many techniques such as P-XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, BET and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Kinetics and mechanism of photocatalytic degradation is also explored. The photocatalytic degradation followed the order (CV+MG) (1 : 2) binary system > MG > CV dyes. On the other hand, an antibacterial activity is also investigated against Gram positive (+ve) bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) as well as Gram negative (-ve) bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Citrobacter sp. The ZnO/GO NCs followed the antibacterial activity order: E. coli > S. aureus similar to Citrobacter sp. > E. faecalis and the inhibition zones diameters are 20, 15, 15 and 10 mm respectively which is comparable with standard drug Gentamycin.