Abstract
In this work, we report a simple synthesis process for the zinc oxide/carbon nanotubes/reduced graphene oxide (ZnO/CNT/rGO) nanocomposite by microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. ZnO and ZnO/CNT/rGO nano composite were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Raman, FE-SEM, TEM, and UV-Visible spectrometer. The photo catalytic activity tested with RhB solution revealed that ZnO/CNT/rGO nanocomposite had excellent photocatalytic properties compared with pure ZnO nanoparticles. The photocatalytic degradation rate constant k of the first-order kinetics was observed. The efficient degradation of dye is attributed predominantly to the presence of ZnO nanoparticles is associated with CNT/rGO surface and further reduction of particles size, which facilitates decreases electron-hole pair recombination and increasing efficiency of charge carrier separation in the visible light adsorption range. Furthermore, the possible reaction mechanism for the dye degradation of ZnO/ CNT/rGO nanocomposites was also discussed. ZnO/CNT/rGO nanocomposites exhibited better photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO nanoparticles, which indicate CNT/rGO improved the photocatalytic efficiency of the ZnO nanoparticle.