Abstract
In this study, a detailed investigation on the effect of zinc oxide (ZnO) quantum dots (QDs) embedment on the physicochemical properties of anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) was conducted. The highly porous nanocomposite labelled as ZQT was prepared via the sol-gel assisted hydrothermal method. The powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates that the average crystallite size of the ZnO QDs, anatase TiO2 (TiO2 NPs) and ZQT were 4.45 nm, 9.22 nm and 11.38 nm, respectively. Photoluminescent (PL) analysis detected the presence of defects related to TiO2, oxygen vacancies and quantum confinement effect (QCE) of the ZnO QDs in ZQT. These features enhanced the photodegradation of tetracycline (TC) under 48 watt of fluorescent light irradiation when ZQT (98.0%) was used compared to TiO2NPs (32.4%) and ZnO QDs (68.8%). The photodegradation activity was driven by O2●− followed by ●OH and h+.
Highlights
Many research interests focused on the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to eliminate antibiotics pollutants since they are effective compared to traditional wastewater treatment techniques.[1]
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the as-synthesised zinc oxide (ZnO) quantum dots (QDs) show broad diffraction peaks at 2θ values of 31.8°, 34.5°, 36.3°, 47.6°, 56.6°, 63.0° and 66.4° corresponding to the crystal planes (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103) and (200) of hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO (JCPDS 36-1451)
As can be seen from the XRD patterns of ZQT, the crystalline planes indexed to the anatase TiO2 broadened when the Zinc Oxide Quantum Dots (ZnO QDs) was incorporated into the crystal lattice of the anatase TiO2
Summary
Many research interests focused on the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) to eliminate antibiotics pollutants since they are effective compared to traditional wastewater treatment techniques.[1]. The QDs/semiconductor nanocomposite have been developed using various methods.[4–7]. Most of these methods required an ageing time of more than 24 h and higher temperatures (200°C to 400°C). A zinc oxide (ZnO) QDs/titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanocomposite was synthesised using a sol-gel assisted hydrothermal method. The sol-gel method allows the nanocomposite to be prepared at a mild temperature and allows better control of the QDs size and coverage. The obtained nanocomposite showed higher efficiency than the pristine TiO2 and ZnO QDs in the photodegradation of tetracycline (TC) antibiotic
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