Design and synthesis of TiO2/ZnO nanocomposite with enhanced oxygen vacancy: Better photocatalytic removal of MB dye under visible light-driven condition

Construction of capable, affordable, transition metal-based catalysts featuring photocatalytic behaviour is ur-gently required and important. Herein, for the first time we have synthesized an eco-friendly, capsule shaped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) anchored upon TiO2 nanoplates, by utilizing bio-active components available in Cin-namon verum leaf extract. The bio-active components, linalool and phytol served as a self-reducing and gapping agent that enrich the surface with oxygen vacancy without disrupting lattice arrangement. The XRD results confirms presence of wurtzite ZnO, anatase and rutile TiO2 NPs. Anatase TiO2 with ZnO supress the electron-hole pair recombination effect. The delayed luminescence behaviour is consistent with the UV-DRS results and sug-gests that the band gap of TiO2/ZnO has been widened. SEM with EDX results justifies that TiO2/ZnO nano -composite mounted oxygen vacancy in a controlled phenomenon, which can boost the separation efficacy of photogenerated carriers and is in good agreement with the PL results. Under visible light irradiation for 60 min, TiO2/ZnO significantly improves photocatalytic degradation for aqueous organic dye pollutants. The k value of the TiO2/ZnO (0.5 mol) nanocomposite is 2.5x10-2 mint-1 which is comparably higher. The unusual nano -architecture, high surface area, and wide band gap of TiO2/ZnO are primarily responsible for its noticeably improved photodegradation performance.

Automated summary

The authors synthesized a novel TiO2/ZnO nanocomposite using cinnamon leaf extract, which significantly improved photocatalytic degradation efficiency, demonstrating its relevance in treating water pollutants.