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Comparative study on structural, morphological, optical and photocatalytic properties of Mn3O4/ZnO, CuO/ZnO and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposites

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Abstract

In the current study, a comparison between the different Mn3O4/ZnO, CuO/ZnO and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposites with respect to their structural, morphological, optical and photocatalytic properties is presented. The nanostructure nature of the investigated composites was confirmed by the XRD and SEM analysis. The nanocrystalline ZnO, M3O4, CuO and Fe2O3 phases were observed with different crystalline structure, including hexagonal, tetragonal, monoclinic and rhombohedral, respectively. The morphology of ZnO based nanocomposites was found to be dependent on the type of the metal oxide added to ZnO nanostructure. In addition, the studied nanocomposites showed different optical properties. The highest and lowest band gap of 3.14 and 2.00 eV were obtained for ZnO nanoparticles and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposite. Concerning the photocatalytic properties, the ZnO nanoparticles, Mn3O4/ZnO, CuO/ZnO and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposites showed an efficiency of 49.63, 29.8, 11.61 and 95.34%, respectively, for the photodegradation of methylene blue. The Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposites exhibited the highest activity for water purification compared to the other nanocomposites.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Hail, P.O. Box 2440, Hail, Saudi Arabia

    Mansour Mohamed, Mohamed Jayiz, Abdullah S. Alshammari & Z. R. Khan

  2. Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, 71516, Egypt

    Mansour Mohamed & A. Sedky

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  1. Mansour Mohamed
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  2. Mohamed Jayiz
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  3. Abdullah S. Alshammari
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  4. A. Sedky
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Contributions

MM contributed to the samples preparation, measurements, data analyzing, discussion, and writing the manuscript. MJ contributed to the samples preparation, measurements, data analyzing, and discussion. ASA contributed to SEM and EDX measurements, data analyzing, discussion and revising the manuscript. AS and ZRK contributed to discussion and revising the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Mansour Mohamed.

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Mohamed, M., Jayiz, M., Alshammari, A.S. et al. Comparative study on structural, morphological, optical and photocatalytic properties of Mn3O4/ZnO, CuO/ZnO and Fe2O3/ZnO nanocomposites. Opt Quant Electron 55, 562 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-023-04858-x

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