Self-assembled quantum dots decorated polypyrrole based multifunctional nanocomposite

Abstract

A modified sol-gel method was used for the synthesis of V/Mn/ZnO (VMZ) self-assembled ternary quantum dots (QDs). The polypyrrole (PPy) was polymerized through the chemical oxidative process. In situ technique was employed for synthesizing VMZ/PPy nanocomposites (NCs). FESEM, TEM, FTIR, UV–visible, Raman, DSC, PL, powder XRD, TGA and DSC were employed to characterize QDs and VMZ/PPy NCs. The theoretical (DFT) method was used to augment the experimental results. For the first time, we are reporting the electrical, adsorption, magnetic, photocatalytic, antibiotic, thermal, and photoluminescent, and anticorrosive properties of VMZ/PPy NCs. VMZ/PPy NCs show a para-magnetic character. The optical band obtained from DFT and UV–visible study was almost similar. For low-carbon steel, the NCs show a maximum of 83.08 ± 0.2% corrosion inhibition efficiency in 1 M HCl. The column packed with silica gel + QDs shows better adsorption capacity than the conventional silica-gel column. The photocatalytic activity of NCs was investigated against methyl-blue dye in UV light. The antibacterial property was investigated against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. The adsorption, magnetic, photocatalytic, electrical, antibiotic, thermal and photoluminescent, and anticorrosive properties of the VMZ/PPy NCs proved it a very good multifunctional nanomaterial.