Abstract
Novel Zr2Ni1Cu7 trimetallic nano-alloy (TNA) and Zr2Ni1Cu7/Si3N4 trimetallic nano-alloy composite (TNAC) have been successfully prepared by facile microwave reduction method. The synthesis of TNA and TNAC was ascertained by characterizing them by using various techniques such as SEM, TEM, XRD, EDX and FTIR etc. The EDX shows the presence of all constituents in TNA and TNAC The XRD study demonstrated the crystalline and semi-crystalline nature of TNA and TNAC. The optical band gap study revealed that TNAC (2.47 eV) has lower band gap then TNA (2.54 eV). The visible light photocatalytic activity of Zr(2)Ni(1)Cu(7)TNA and Zr2Ni1Cu7/Si3N4 TNAC has been successfully utilized for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB). The presence of H2O2 has been found to influence the photodegradation rate. Photodegradation results presented that maximum degradation was observed in the presence of H2O2 and Zr(2)Ni(1)Cu(7)TNAC (92%). Scavenging activity has revealed that the hydroxyl radicals were the major reacting species. These species successfully degraded the MB into various intermediates that has successfully been determined by the LC-MS. Kinetic studies indicated that the degradation of MB by Zr(2)Ni(1)Cu(7)TNA and Zr2Ni1Cu7/Si(3)N(4)TNAC followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.