Facile Synthesis of Fe 3 O 4 /ZnO Nanocomposite: Applications to Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Activities

In the current work, we have reported the preparation of Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposite (NC) via co-precipitation. The prepared Fe3O4/ZnO nanocomposite were characterized by x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, ultraviolet-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). From the x-ray diffraction pattern, the average crystallite size of Fe3O4/ZnO NC was found to be 13 nm. UV-DRS showed an energy band gap of 2.3 eV for the prepared sample. From the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area analysis, total pore volume (VP) and mean pore diameter (rp) were found to be 12.647 m2g−1, 0.024125 cm3g−1 and 7.6302 nm. The functional groups and metal to oxygen bonding in Fe3O4/ZnO NC were observed in FT-IR. SEM and TEM micrograph of Fe3O4/ZnO NC show flake- and grain-like structures, and the luminescence spectrum shows blue emission. The photocatalytic activity of Fe3O4/ZnO NC was examined using industrial effluent dyes such as Evans blue (90% in 150 min) and Rhodamine B (RB) (99% in 150 min) under UV light irradiation. Further, Fe3O4/ZnO NC also showed a superior zone of inhibition against pathogenic bacterial strains such as Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus by agar well diffusion compared to Fe3O4 and ZnO nanoparticles.