A novel Ppy/ZnO@Co ternary nanocomposite with enhanced visible light-driven photocatalytic performance

Abstract

Background: Discharging textile industries' wastewater into the surrounding environment without treatment harms mammals and the aquatic environment. Photocatalysts, such as semiconductor nanoparticles, use a renewable light energy source to decompose various dangerous pollutants in wastewater. One of the most often utilized semiconductors is nanostructured ZnO and its photocatalytic activity is restricted to the UV region. Recently, utilizing ternary nanocomposite formed with the combination of the conductive polymer and nanoparticles has shown promising performance for improving the visible light absorption capacity. Methods: A novel Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO@Co) doped polypyrrole ternary nanocomposite (Ppy/ZnO@Co) was synthesized via chemical oxidative polymerization for degradation cationic rhodamine B (RdB) and anionic direct yellow 50 (DY) dyes under visible light illumination. Significant findings: The Ppy/ZnO@Co completely degraded RdB and DY dyes after 45 and 70 min, respectively, with 6.2 times increased photocatalytic efficiency matched to ZnO@Co due to the minimum recombination rate of photogenerated charges and efficient charge transmission on the surface of the ternary photocatalyst. The Ppy/ZnO@Co shows excellent photocatalytic recycling performance by maintaining the photocatalytic performance for up to five cycles with over 97% removal efficiency, suggesting that the Ppy/ZnO@Co is a promising visible-light-incentive photocatalyst candidate for degrading dyes in the textile industries' wastewater. © 2023 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers