photocatalytic degradation of methyl green dye in aqueous solution by novel magnetic carboxymethyl cellulose - cysteine stabilized zno nanocomposites

In recent years, interest in the field of magnetic polymeric nanocomposite with magnetic core and polymeric shell has increased considerably because of many advantages such as flexibility, good compatibility and functionalization with other materials, ease of processing, and tunable properties [1]. the nanocomposite properties are defined by chemical nature of polymeric matrix which served as surfactant or stabilizer, and the interaction between nanoparticles and polymeric matrix [2, 3]. in view of this, several natural and synthetic polymers (e.g., chitosan, graphene oxide, polypyrrole, polyaniline, polyacrylonitrile) are extensively studied as the organic shell in magnetic polymeric nanocomposite. among the natural polymers, cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer, and is considered as a biodegradable, eco-friendly, and non-toxic polymer. however, the poor reactivity of cellulose and also its poor solubility limits its application. chemical modifications of cellulose have improved the overall applications of its polymers. carboxymethyl cellulose (cmc) is a cellulose derivative with carboxymethyl groups bonded to some of the hydroxyl groups on the cellulose backbone [4]. in order to maximize its functionality in existing applications, e.g. without employing any extraneous cross-linking agents, cmc is often modified. in this work, magnetic carboxymethyl cellulose - cysteine stabilized zno nanocomposites was successfully synthesized by an effective procedure without any toxic monomer and crosslinking agent. the asprepared nanocomposites were characterized in detailed, and their photocatalytic properties were investigated for the degradation of methyl green dye from aqueous solution. hence, the effects of experimental parameters on the methyl green photocatalytic degradation by the nanocomposites were studied and the optimized conditions were obtained.