Employing adsorption activity of novel ZnO/ZIF-L nanocomposite in the treatment of wastewater

Abstract

This work involves synthesis of ZnO nanorods using thermal decomposition method and further formulating ZnO/ZIF-L nanocomposite by eco-friendly wet chemical method in order to enhance the adsorption activity of ZnO. The morphological analysis of the synthesized samples was carried out using Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), in which nanorods of ZnO and leaves like structure of ZIF-L were observed. The optical performance of the samples was analyzed using UV–Visible spectroscopy and the bandgap was calculated using Tauc’s plot. The calculated values of bandgap for ZnO, ZIF-L, and ZnO/ZIF-L are 3.04, 5.45, and 5.47 eV, respectively. The functional group analysis was carried out with the help of Fourier Transform Infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR). Zeta potential study was also performed for the analysis of surface charge of the prepared samples. The adsorption of Malachite Green (MG) which is a textile dye was carried out using the synthesized samples. The nanocomposite showcased an enhanced adsorption activity (∼94%) as compared to pristine ZnO (∼74%) and ZIF-L (∼89%) towards (MG), when the two were used as separate entities.