Abstract
Herewith we report a facile synthesis of zinc oxide doped with (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) titanium oxide nanocomposites in gelatin under ultra-sonication. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data revealed the ZnO formation in addition to a rutile TiO2 phase. The ZnO phase size decreased, while the rutile TiO2 phase increased with a TiO2 loading increment. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) displayed a combination of spherical and hexagonal particles with 60-80 nm size distribution. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared nanostructures was assisted using Rhodamine B dye, where they showed enhanced photodegradation competence under visible light irradiation. The kinetics of photodegradation followed the first-order kinetics with the 20%wt sample showing the maximum activity. The mechanistic investigation revealed the dominance of h(+) and center dot O-2(-) species during the dye photodegradation. The results indicate the potential application of such gelatin-stabilized nanostructures for dye illumination from aqueous solutions under sunlight.