Zinc-decorated barium oxide nanorods for the effective sunlight-induced catalytic degradation of Irgalite violet dye

Abstract

Simple and facile fabrication of barium oxide (BaO) and zinc-decorated barium oxide (ZnBaO) nanocatalysts was accomplished through a co-precipitation technique. Irgalite violet (IV) dye was subjected to sunlight-induced catalytic degradation using novel catalyst ZnBaO nanorods. The synthesized nanocatalysts were subjected to various analytical techniques, including FE-SEM/EDX, XRD and FTIR, for their comprehensive characterization. X-ray diffraction confirmed the crystallinity of BaO and ZnBaO nanocatalysts. The FE-SEM image of the ZnBaO nanocatalyst revealed the occurrence of distinct nanorods with a mean size of 22.5 nm possessing an aspect ratio of 4.95. A characteristic UV absorbance peak was observed at 310 nm for BaO and 380 nm for ZnBaO nanocatalysts. The substitution of Zn to BaO led to a favorable decrease in the band gap energy from 5.315 eV (BaO) to 2.6 eV (ZnBaO). The synthesized BaO and ZnBaO nanocatalysts were used in parametric studies by varying catalyst dosage, irradiation time, pH and initial dye concentration. The ZnBaO nanorods showed a maximum degradation efficiency of 99.9% at pH 11 with a catalyst dosage of 40 mg/50 mL containing 5 mg/L dye concentration. The recyclability studies showed that the ZnBaO nanorods could serve as a potential catalyst for degrading dyes. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.