Enhancement in dye removal by photocatalytic degradation using metal oxide nanoparticles embedded on activated carbon powder and study of their antibacterial activity

Abstract

The synergetic effect of photocatalytic, adsorption and antibacterial properties of ZnO@ACP and CuO@ACP samples are investigated in this study. The synthesized samples are initially studied for their elemental composition, crystalline phase and structure, surface morphology, optical band gap, functional groups, vibrational modes by EDAX, SEM, XRD, Raman, FTIR, UV–vis spectroscopy and BET respectively. Methylene blue (MB) which is used as a dye in industries has been used in this work for its removal from waste water using the above prepared samples. We could remove 63% of MB by adsorption under dark conditions with this samples. After illumination with UV radiation, it is seen that MB is degraded 93% by ZnO@ACP, 85% with CuO@ACP whereas adsorbed 78% with activated charcoal. This reflects that ZnO and CuO nanoparticles embedded with activated charcoal shows increase in photocatalytic activity. Further, Langmuir-Hinshelwood model is used to calculate the kinetic rates of ZnO and CuO nanoparticles on embedded on ACP samples. The antimicrobial activity of synthesized samples is also tested against E. coli. bacteria whereas cell viability is tested using CHO (Chinese hamster ovary) animal cells at various concentrations. The results obtained shows 75% decrease in the growth of E. coli bacteria for ZnO@ACP and 60% decrease for CuO@ACP at a concentration of 250 μg ml−1 whereas reduction in colony counts is 95% and 75%, respectively. we obtained 80%–90% CHO cell viability proves that both these samples are not toxic to these cells.