Graphene-substrate fabricated oxides and zinc oxide catalysts for the degradation of the methylene blue in the industrial wastewater

Abstract

Abstract The release of unsafe color dyes into various industrial effluents can harm the environment and human health and therefore needs remediation. The current research assesses the environmental friendly photo-less catalytic performance of zinc oxide/reduced graphene oxide (ZnO/RGO) nanocomposites, prepared via green synthetic route, for the degradation, and decontamination of methylene blue (MB) dye from industrial aqueous effluents and compared with that of zinc oxide (ZnO), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The materials were characterized for surface morphology, functional groups, and crystallinity by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, respectively, showing that ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were well-formed on the RGO surface and were having uniform pore sizes and large surface area. The degradation pattern of MB from its 40, 60, 80, and 100 ppm solutions by employing the degradation materials were examined using UV–Visible spectral analysis. The pH before and after the degradation of the MB in all the sample solutions was noted and found to change slightly after the degradation of MB. The results demonstrate that the ZnO/RGO nanocomposites display a better catalytic degradation efficiency (99.57%) as compared to the other degradation materials with the order of efficiency as ZnO/RGO > RGO > H2O2 > ZnO which shows that the degradation efficiency of ZnO (∼14%) can be significantly improved while fabricating its nanocomposite with RGO (99.57%). These findings can be utilized on a large-scale decontamination of dyes from industrial wastes without the involvement of light i.e., photo-less degradation.