Facile synthesis of ZnO-Y2O3 nanocomposite for photocatalytic and biological applications
Suganthi Nachimuthu, C. Thangamani, Nathiya Thiyagarajulu, Kalaiyarasu Thangaraj, Deepak Paramasivam, S. Thangavel, Karthik Kannan, C. Parvathiraja, Vibala Bhagavathi Visalakshi, Palanivel Velmurugan, Arunachalam Chinnathambi, Sulaiman Ali Alharbi, Nagaraj Basavegowda
Abstract
ZnO and ZnO-Y2O3 nanocomposites (NCs) were investigated for their photocatalytic degradation of Methylene blue (MB) dye. X-ray diffraction study demonstrates that the hexagonal structure of ZnO has crystallite size compared to ZnO-Y2O3 NCs and confirms the cubic configuration of Y2O3. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the ZnO nanoparticles are spherical and ZnO-Y2O3 NCs have smaller particles with less agglomeration. The decreased recombining of excited e−/h+ of ZnO-Y2O3 NCs is confirmed over fluorescence study. ZnO-Y2O3 exhibits a more significant degradation efficiency (96%) than ZnO nanoparticles (86%) in 120 min. ZnO-Y2O3 NCs have antibacterial as well as antioxidant activity.