Degradation of a Reactive Orange 16 in textile wastewater treatment using CuO/ZnO nanocomposite as photocatalyst

In this study, photo-electrocatalytic degradation of Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) dye by CuO/ZnO nanocomposite under UV and sunlight irradiation for textile wastewater treatment was demonstrated. CuO/ZnO nanostructure was synthesized using a hydrothermal technique. The production of a monoclinic phase of leaf-shaped CuO loaded on a hexagonal wurtzite structure of rod-shaped ZnO was confirmed by FE-SEM and XRD investigations of the nanocomposite. According to optical experiments, the band gap energies of CuO, ZnO, and CuO/ZnO nanocomposite were 1.99, 2.19, and 3.34 eV, respectively. CuO/ZnO nanocomposite has effective charge separation and faster charge transfer than CuO and ZnO, according to an EIS investigation. In a photocatalytic investigation, the entire elimination of 150 ml of 100 mg/l RO16 solution was achieved after 160, 135 and 120 minutes of UV light illumination, and after 115, 140, and 100 minutes of sunlight illumination for CuO, ZnO, and CuO/ZnO nanocomposite, respectively. The results show that dye degradation is faster when exposed to sunlight than when exposed to UV radiation, which can be related to band gap engineering and the creation of interfacial contact between CuO and ZnO nanostructures in CuO/ZnO nanocomposite. In this study, the photocatalytic performance of the prepared photocatalysts was tested for degradation of actual samples prepared using textile wastewater under sunlight irradiation, and the results show that the CuO/ZnO nanocomposite has the appropriate capability to treat RO16 from textile wastewater.

Automated summary

This study demonstrated the effective photo-electrocatalytic degradation of Reactive Orange 16 (RO16) dye in textile wastewater using CuO/ZnO nanocomposite under UV and sunlight irradiation. The CuO/ZnO nanostructure was successfully synthesized using a hydrothermal technique. The results showed that CuO/ZnO nanocomposite exhibited faster charge transfer and higher charge separation efficiency compared to CuO and ZnO. The dye degradation process was found to be faster under sunlight irradiation than under UV light, which can be attributed to the band gap engineering and interfacial contact between CuO and ZnO nanostructures in the CuO/ZnO nanocomposite. The photocatalytic performance of CuO/ZnO nanocomposite was also tested on actual textile wastewater samples, and it exhibited effective capability in treating RO16 dye.