Abstract
Non-biodegradable effluents form dying industries cause harm to environment. Usage of nanomaterials is an effective method for purification of such effluents. Agglomeration of photoactive nanomaterials can be reduced by doping with suitable coupling agents. The present study explores usage of Polyethylene glycol 4000 and Methyltrimethoxysilane as surface modifiers to Zinc oxide by sol–gel method. Structural analysis revealed hexagonal wurtzite phase of synthesized ZnO nanomaterial. Diffraction peaks had no major shift in position denoting crystallinity and purity. Presence of nano-sized particles was confirmed by FESEM analysis. Investigation of optical band bap energy of ZnO, ZnO/PEG-4000 and ZnO/PEG-4000/MTMS was made. Antibacterial efficacy analysis showed, all combinations of ZnO were sensitive against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Photocatalytic degradation analysis revealed ZnO functionalized by both polymer and silane exhibited highest degradation efficiency under visible light source for MB dye, the efficiency was maintained even after five cyclic degradations.
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