A Comparative Study of Photocatalytic Activity of ZnO/activated Carbon Nanocomposites Prepared by Solid-state and Conventional Precipitation Methods

Zno/activated carbon nanocomposites (zno/acns) were synthesized by applying two different solid-state and precipitation methods. precipitation method was initiated with zinc chloride and sodium hydroxide as starting materials in the presence of activated carbon. the synthesized sample was calcined at 250 °c for 1 h. the preparation of nanocomposite by solid-state method was accomplished by heating a mixture of zncl2 and activated carbon at 250 °c for 1 h, which led to the formation of zno particles on the surface. the samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction (xrd), scanning electron microscopy (sem) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (eds). photocatalytic activity of these zno/acnes was evaluated by the degradation of methyl orange under uv-light radiation. the sem images of samples show that the agglomerations of particles are much less in solid-state method prepared samples. the results of eds indicate that the ratio of zn/c in the pure activated carbon and nanocomposites prepared by solid-state and precipitation methods were 0, 1.7 and 3.7 % (w/w), respectively. the xrd of the samples clearly shows that the sample prepared by the above routes has zno structures. finally, zno/acn prepared by the solid-state method demonstrated better photocatalytic efficiency against methyl orange dye than composites made by precipitation method.