Multifunctional ZnO/Fc-rGO nanocomposite for enhanced adsorption and photocatalytic performance promoting acid violet 7-dye removal

The treatment of highly polluted and variable textile industry effluent with the photocatalytic process has been proposed. However, it is challenging for photocatalysts to achieve high photon absorption while simultaneously providing for photogenerated electron-hole recombination. Therefore, to fulfil this criterion a nanocomposite designed to support a catalyst on a carbon base such as the functionalized reduced graphene oxide (Fc-rGO) embedded with ZnO is suggested in the present work. The ZnO/Fc-rGO nanocomposite is synthesized by a facile co-precipitation approach. Assessing the efficacy of the Acid Violet 7 (AV7) photocatalytic breakdown mechanism, the ZnO/Fc-rGO photocatalyst showed better photocatalytic performance compared to bare ZnO. The XRD pattern of the nanocomposite showed the presence of a hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO in the nanocomposite. The photocatalytic test showed the removal of AV7 to be 92.87% using the ZnO/Fc-rGO nanocomposite under UV C irradiation for 210 min. The synergistic integration of zinc oxide (ZnO) photocatalyst with ferrocene-reduced graphene oxide (Fc-rGO) in conjunction with the adsorption properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) produces a highly effective photocatalytic degradation system. The kinetic study suggested that the Lagergren model and Langmuir adsorption isotherm model were the best-fitted models. After four cycles of use, the nanocomposites demonstrated a ∼50% AV7 degradation percentage. The radical scavenger test showed OH− and •O2− species were responsible for the photocatalytic mechanistic degradation of AV7. The residual toxicity analysis also showed excellent cell viability of the model organism after treatment of AV7 dye. As a result of the experiment, it is evident that using Fc-rGO embedded with ZnO resulted in improved degradation of persistent organic pollutants in textile effluent.