Abstract
Herewith we report a facile synthesis of zinc oxide doped with (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) titanium oxide nanocomposites in gelatin under ultra-sonication. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data revealed the ZnO formation in addition to a rutile TiO2 phase. The ZnO phase size decreased, while the rutile TiO2 phase increased with a TiO2 loading increment. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) displayed a combination of spherical and hexagonal particles with 60–80 nm size distribution. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared nanostructures was assisted using Rhodamine B dye, where they showed enhanced photodegradation competence under visible light irradiation. The kinetics of photodegradation followed the first-order kinetics with the 20%wt sample showing the maximum activity. The mechanistic investigation revealed the dominance of h+ and ·O2− species during the dye photodegradation. The results indicate the potential application of such gelatin-stabilized nanostructures for dye illumination from aqueous solutions under sunlight.
Highlights
Polymer stabilized nanocomposites are recently becoming of prime research interests by virtue of their value added benefits such as improved stabilizing, fictionalization, magnetic, thermal and mechanical qualities [1,2,3]
The required amounts of TiO2 and fixed amount of ZnO nanoparticles were dispersed in 100ml of absolute ethanol and the mixture sonicated at room temperature for 30min until the milky solution formed
The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the TiO2/ZnO composite are sketched in Fig. 1. reveal sharp and distinct diffraction peaks with relative intensity and broadening, as a clue of the development of nano-crystalline structure of high crystallinity [23]
Summary
Polymer stabilized nanocomposites are recently becoming of prime research interests by virtue of their value added benefits such as improved stabilizing, fictionalization, magnetic, thermal and mechanical qualities [1,2,3]. Hydrophilic, biocompatible and biodegradable natural biopolymers are favored over the synthetic [4]. Gelatin obtained by denaturation of collagen is formed of a single sequence of amino acids. It is warm water soluble and gels when its concentration exceeds 1wt% [2]. It has the ability to coordinate with metal ions due to the polar groups in its structure [5]. Gelatin was dissolved in the sol form and used as a structure-guiding agent to tailor the ZnO nanostructures morphology. Gelatin was employed to stabilize CdTe/CdS/ZnS (CSSG) core/double shell quantum dots (QDs) to advance their biocompatibility[7], copper NPs [8] and ZnO NPs [9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Submitted Version (
Free)
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call