Facile one-pot solid-state fabrication of a novel binary nanocomposite of commercial ZnO and commercial PbCrO4 with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B dye

Lead chromate, PbCrO4, is a semiconductor material exhibiting narrow bandgap energy indicating its promising visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity. However, very few papers reported the utilization of PbCrO4 as a photocatalyst. Herein, we report a simple one-pot room-temperature method that was employed for the synthesis of a novel PbCrO4/ZnO binary nanocomposite, for the first time, based on solid-state mixing of commercial Zinc oxide nanoparticles and commercial PbCrO4 nanorods to enhance the optical properties and photocatalytic performance of ZnO. The as-synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by FE-SEM, XRD, FTIR, DRS, and PL. The results confirmed that the anchoring of PbCrO4 nanorods on the surface of ZnO nanoparticles achieved a significant enhancement in their optical properties such as decreasing the bandgap energy and reducing the e-h recombination rate as well as the enhanced photocatalytic performance toward Rhodamine B photodegradation. Finally, the mechanism of the enhanced photocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized novel PbCrO4/ZnO nanocomposite was suggested.

Automated summary

In this study, a novel PbCrO4/ZnO binary nanocomposite was synthesized using a simple one-pot method, where commercial Zinc oxide nanoparticles and commercial PbCrO4 nanorods were solid-state mixed. The resulting nanocomposite showed enhanced optical properties and photocatalytic performance of ZnO.