Fabrication of Metal Oxide/ Activated Carbon Nanocomposite from Jujube (Ziziphus Mauritiana) Seeds for Photodegradation of Dye

Abstract

The photocatalytic degradation of dye from water using metal oxide semiconductor is the study of great interest due to its environmental and health concerns. The aim of this study is to fabricate metal oxide/activated-carbon composite using zinc oxide and copper oxide with agro-base Indian Jujube (Ziziphus Mauritiana) activated-carbon for dye degradation from aqueous solution. Indian Jujube seed was used to synthesize agro-based activated carbon (JAC) using ZnCl2 as an activating agent at carbonization temperature 500°C for 3 hrs. Thus, prepared JAC was used to synthesize metal oxide/activated carbon nanocomposites by one-step hydrothermal process. Both, activated carbon and its composite were characterized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The UV-Vis spectroscopy result showed the increment in band gap of CuO in case of CuO/JAC nanocomposite from ̴ 2.3 eV to ̴ 2.6 eV while decrease in band gap of ZnO in case of ZnO/JAC nano-composite from 3.3 eV to 3.2 eV revealing the enhanced photocatalytic activity of nanocomposites. The kinetic study followed pseudo-first order kinetics for the degradation of MB & MO dye. The rate constant for MB and MO dye degradation using ZnO/JAC were 0.163 min-1 and 0.009 min-1 respectively.