Combustion-mediated sol–gel preparation of cobalt-doped ZnO nanohybrids for the degradation of acid red and antibacterial performance

Abstract

Abstract The present study explores the combustion-mediated sol–gel preparation of the cobalt-doped ZnO (Co/ZnO) nanohybrids. The characterization results of as-prepared samples were investigated using analytical instruments like FTIR, XRD, XPS, SEM, UV-Vis DRS, BET, and TGA. The doping of cobalt into ZnO was achieved at a lower particle size (21.3 nm) than the pure ZnO (29.6 nm). We observed that the Co-doped ZnO grain size seems to be in abundance and diversity than that of the undoped ZnO. Further examination was carried out with photocatalytic degradation of acid red (AR) dye under visible light illumination and antibacterial performance over Spingomonous pausimobilis and Streptococcus pyrogenes to assess the catalytic performance of the prepared Co/ZnO nanohybrid. The photocatalytic degradation results from the optimum reaction conditions are 150 mg of catalyst loading, pH 2, and 10 ppm of initial AR dye concentration, and the complete degradation of AR dye in 120 min. The antibacterial performance of the Co/ZnO nanohybrid was measured and was found to be 25 and 16 mm for S. pausimobilis and S. pyrogenes, respectively, with respect to the control chloramphenicol.