Abstract
The utilization of the manufactured MnCo3O4-ZnO heterojunctions for the accelerated conversion of Cr6+ ions to Cr3+ via photoreduction under visible illumination is reported in this work. Sol-gel approach was applied to generate mesoporous ZnO with the aid of a surfactant. MnCo3O4 NPs were incorporated into the manufactured ZnO with the percentages of 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt%. The analyses performed to identify the phase composition and microstructure of the manufactured materials (XRD, XPS and TEM) affirmed the creation of greatly distributed MnCo3O4 NPs over spherical ZnO NPs with particle diameters of 10.2 and 40.2 nm, respectively. The photo-catalytic performance of the manufactured materials was compared to that of P25. Bandgap energy of the produced MnCo3O4-ZnO heterojunction with 3 wt% MnCo3O4 was lower than the value of pure ZnO, which cooperated significantly with the absorption advancement in the visible region. If the amount of generated MnCo3O4-ZnO photocatalyst was maintained at 2.4 gL(-1), the Cr6+ photocatalytic reduction progressed satis-factorily in 45 min at a rate of 286.9 mu mol min(-1). Subsequent to five trials of the Cr6+ photoreduction, optimized photocatalyst demonstrated excellent recyclability. Photocurrent and photoluminescence experiments showed that the increased photocatalytic reduction rate could be attributable to excellent interfacial charge separation among the photo-created charges inside the produced heterojunction. The finding showed the produced nano-composite as an impressive photocatalyst for heavy metal ions elimination employing visible illumination.