https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04670-2
Regular Article
Synergistic photocatalysis: harnessing WSe2-ZnO nanocomposites for efficient malachite green dye degradation
1
Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, Jazan University, 45142, Jazan, Saudi Arabia
2
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, 342030, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India
c imranchaudhary0@gmail.com, malain@jazanu.edu.sa
Received:
30
August
2023
Accepted:
8
November
2023
Published online:
27
November
2023
In this work, the zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods on the WSe2 nanosheets were synthesized by a two-step method. The synthesized nanomaterials were characterized by XRD and SEM to confirm the structural and morphological properties. The band gap of the materials was calculated using a Tauc’ plot, and the band gap of the nanocomposite was found to be 2.59 eV. The nanocomposite falls under the visible light spectrum and overcomes the problem of wide bandgap of ZnO. The surface charge of the nanocomposite was analyzed by zeta potential measurement and found to be suitable for the adsorption of malachite green dye. The fabrication of nanocomposite improves the recombination rate, as confirmed by the time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. The photocatalytic degradation of malachite green dye was performed, and an efficiency of ~80% was achieved. The nanocomposite follows a pseudo-first-order model, which is confirmed by the high correlation coefficient value. The photocatalysis mechanism was proposed and confirmed through a scavenger test. The reusability test demonstrates that the nanocomposite is a potential candidate for dye degradation.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
