Abstract
Herein, CuO/ZnO nanocomposites at different ratios were successfully synthesized through a green biosynthesis approach. This was performed by harnessing the fungal-secreted enzymes and proteins during the sol-gel process for nanocomposites seed growth. All fabricated nanoparticles/nanocomposites were characterized using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM-EDX) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. The photocatalytic degradation efficacy of the synthesized nanocomposites was evaluated using a cationic methylene blue (MB) dye as a model of reaction. Results obtained from the FT-IR and EDX analyses revealed that CuO-NPs, ZnO-NPs, CuO/ZnO50/50, CuO/ZnO80/20, and CuO/ZnO20/80 were successfully prepared by harnessing the biomass filtrate of Penicillium corylophilum As-1. Furthermore, XRD and TEM revealed the variation in the particle size of the nanocomposites (10–55 nm) with the ratio of the nanoparticles. Notably, the size of the nanocomposites was proportionally increased with an increasing ratio of ZnO-NPs. XPS analysis affirmed the presence of both Cu and Zn in the nanocomposites with varying binding energies compared with individual nanoparticles. Furthermore, a high photo-degradation efficacy was achieved by increasing the ratio of ZnO-NPs in the nanocomposite formulation, and 97% of organic MB dye was removed after 85 min of irradiation using the CuO/ZnO20/80 nanocomposite.
Highlights
The startling technological development has increased the large-scale industrial production of much of the daily-used products with a broad range of applications [1, 2]
We focused on the biosynthesis of CuO/ZnO nanocomposites by harnessing the cell filtrate of Penicillium corylophilum
The biosynthesized CuONPs, ZnO-NPs, and CuO/ZnO nanocomposites with different ratios (50/50; 20/80 and 80/20) were investigated via Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis to determine their respective sizes and shapes (Figure 4 A-1 to E-1)
Summary
The startling technological development has increased the large-scale industrial production of much of the daily-used products with a broad range of applications [1, 2]. Among these products, dyes are crucial in the textile and fashion industries. The common problems faced by textile industries are related to the residual dyes in the dyeing bath. Such industries implement innovative, rapid, and sustainable treatment methods to enhance the color removal of wastewater [4, 5]. Photocatalytic degradation has proved to be a promising technique for the removal of organic dye pollutants by optical catalyst owing to its environmental friendliness and the absence of secondary pollutants [8, 9]
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