Hierarchical nanostructured ZnO-CuO nanocomposite and its photocatalytic activity

Metal oxide nanocomposite (ZnO-CuO) was successfully synthesized by one step homogeneous coprecipitation method and further characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron micrograph (SEM), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectra. XRD analysis exhibited presence of pure copper oxide and zinc oxide within the nanocomposite. SEM analysis indicated that the ZnO-CuO nanocomposite was consisted of flower shaped ZnO along with leaf shaped CuO. Photocatalytic activity of nanocomposite was evaluated in terms of degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye solution under ultra-violet radiation. Results showed that the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO-CuO nanocomposite was higher than its individual pure oxides (ZnO or CuO).