Green Synthesis Derived Novel Fe2O3/ZnO Nanocomposite for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange Dye

Introduction: An eco-friendly method was reported for the synthesis of ferric oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO) and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite using Mangifera indica plant leaf extract as a natural reducing agent. Methods: The synthesized nanomaterials were successfully characterized by X-ray diffraction, UVvisible spectrophotometer, Photoluminescence spectroscopy and Transmission electron microscopy. The obtained XRD spectrums revealed the crystalline nature of synthesized materials and the average diameters of Fe2O3 nanoparticles, ZnO nanoparticles and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite came out to be 11.33 nm, 14.31 nm and 9.80 nm, respectively. The UV-visible absorbance spectra and photoluminescence spectrums confirmed that the Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite was visible light active and had excitation peaks in the visible range. Results: The TEM analysis confirmed the composite and semiconductor nature of the synthesized Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite reaches about 91.07% degradation of methyl orange dye within a time period of 150 min at an optimized catalyst dose. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic study were also applied to validate the study. Conclusion: It was found that there was monolayer adsorption of methyl orange dye molecules on the surface of the synthesized catalyst under optimized experimental conditions and also, the adsorption process follows the pseudo-second-order kinetic model.