Green synthesis of TiO2-Al2O3-ZnFe2O4 nanocomposite using the Hibiscus rosa sinesis and evaluation of its photocatalytic applications

Abstract

Use of the green approach for the synthesis of nanoparticles has gained significant interest in the field of nanotechnology. The applicability of greener nanomaterials in environmental remediation has unveiled their tremendous properties and potentiality to eradicate the pollutants from nature in ecofriendly manner. In the present paper, we proposed synthesis of TiO2-Al2O3-ZnFe2O4 nanocomposites using flower extract of Hibiscus rosa sinesis via hydrothermal approach. The synthesized product was characterized by several optical and morphological techniques i.e. Field emission scanning electron microscope, X ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Brunauer Emmett Teller. To conclude, Field emission scanning electron microscope reveals the nanostructures are of 40-130 nm size. X ray diffraction reveals the presence of rutile TiO2 and hexagonal Al2O3 along with ZnFe2O4 crystallites. Barrett-Joyner-Halenda model reveals that the pore volume and pore diameter were found to be 38.206 m2/g, 0.048 cc/g and 3.640 nm, respectively. TiO2-Al2O3-ZnFe2O4 have shown photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (96.54 ± 1.24%.), industrial sample (88.52 ± 0.64), and heavy metal hexavalent chromium (94.7 ± 3.20%) in the presence of sunlight. Besides, the synthesized product exhibited good antioxidant properties (84 ± 2.1%) against 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl.