Significant enhancement of Z-Scheme mechanism based photocatalytic performance of Co3O4/ZnO–Cu nanocomposite for degradation of hazardous dye

Abstract

Co3O4/ZnO–Cu nanocomposites (NCs) were successfully prepared by facile hydrothermal method. Photocatalytic activity of the prepared photocatalysts (PCs) were investigated under simulated light irradiation over Rhodamine Blue (Rh B) dye. The degradation efficiency of as-prepared Co3O4, ZnO–Cu, and Co3O4/ZnO–Cu PCs were 35.71, 64.47 and 95.33%, respectively. The significant PCs of Co3O4/ZnO–Cu NCs was achieved the better degradation efficiency (95.33%) within 100 min under simulated light irradiation. The kinetic rate constant of synthesized Co3O4/ZnO–Cu PCs (0.03086 min−1) was achieved by 6.76 times higher than bare Co3O4. The Co3O4/ZnO–Cu PCs showed an excellent recyclability with 90.7% of dye degradation efficiency after four successive cycles. Hence, the Co3O4/ZnO–Cu PCs have significant photocatalytic material due to great utilization of light fascination, effective charge separation and highly inhibits the recombination rate respectively. Since, the present finding suggests that the synthesized Co3O4/ZnO–Cu PCs can exhibit high potential towards wastewater treatment for various environmental applications.