Abstract
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a fascinating semiconductor material with many applications such as adsorption, photocatalysis, sensor, and antibacterial activities. By using a poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer as a capping agent and metal oxides (iron and manganese) as a couple, the porous PVA-aided Zn/Fe/Mn ternary oxide nanocomposite material (PTMO-NCM) was synthesized. The thermal, optical, crystallinity, chemical bonding, porosity, morphological, charge transfer properties of the synthesized materials were confirmed by DTG/DSC, UV–Vis-DRS, XRD, FT-IR, BET, SEM-EDAX/TEM-HRTEM-SAED, and CV/EIS/amperometric analytical techniques, respectively. The PTMO-NCM showed an enhanced surface area and charge transfer capability, compared to ZnO. Using the XRD pattern and TEM image analysis, the crystalline size of the materials was confirmed to be in the nanometer range. The porosity and superior charge transfer capabilities of the PTMO-NCM were confirmed from the BET, HRTEM (IFFT)/SAED, and CV/EIS analysis. The adsorption kinetics (adsorption reaction/adsorption diffusion) and adsorption isotherm test confirmed the presence of a chemisorption type of adsorbate/methylene blue dye-adsorbent/PTMO-NCM interaction. The photocatalytic performance was tested on the Congo red and Acid Orange-8 dyes. The superior ascorbic acid sensing capability of the material was understood from CV and amperometric analysis. The noble antibacterial activities of the material were also confirmed on both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.
Highlights
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are commonly used in several fields such as adsorption [1], photocatalysis [2, 3], food preservation [4], and pollutant sensor [5]
The PTMO-NCM that has high porosity, enhanced surface area, and superior charge transfer capability was synthesized using the sol–gel followed by self-propagation techniques
Using the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image analysis, the approximate average crystalline size of PTMONCM was determined to be in the range of 10–60 nm
Summary
Zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) are commonly used in several fields such as adsorption [1], photocatalysis [2, 3], food preservation [4], and pollutant sensor [5]. The application of single metal oxide as a photocatalyst is restricted on the charger transfer property due to the photogenerated electron/hole recombination. This recombination, in the nanosized range, leads to the diminution of their quantum efficiency and may lead to the dissipation of radiant energy by initiating highly desirable reactions [8, 9]. PVA polymer as a stabilizing agent has great use in diminishing the electron–hole recombination problems [17]. As reported [18, 19], 500 °C is the optimum temperature to remove unwanted impurities including the PVA polymer after acting as a capping agent. Modifying the synthesized materials to have a mesoporous property that allows a rapid charge transfer process has been reported [20, 21]. Using only environmentally benign water as a solvent and developing an
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