Electrochemical synthesis of hierarchal flower-like hierarchical In2O3/ZnO nanocatalyst for textile industry effluent treatment, photo-voltaic, [rad]OH scavenging and anti-bacterial studies

Abstract

A facile technique for the electrochemical synthesis of In2O3/ZnO heterostructures capable of producing flower-like nanoparticles in size range about 5–10nm with a wide band gap of 4.15eV, under ambient conditions is established. The In2O3/ZnO nanocatalyst exhibits high catalytic performance on the degradation of textile industrial effluent, about 98.4% at 3mg of catalyst, and better reusability. The hydroxyl radical scavenging activity was established by Fenton reaction and is correlated to photo-degradation and inactivation of bacteria as both are ROS dependent phenomena. Anti-bacterial activity is tested against a bioluminescent bacterium via MIC which shows 50% efficiency at mere 62μg of nanoparticle.