Role of ZnO/GO nanocomposite in photocatalytic degradation of mixture of organic pollutants and antimicrobial activity

Abstract

Abstract A number of carcinogenic dyes and microbial infections have negative effects on living being. These also have a detrimental effect on water quality and responsible for major health problems. ZnO/GO nanocomposites (NCs) (10 wt. % GO) is synthesized via one pot ecofriendly route. It is utilized for photocatalytic degradation of aqueous solution of Malachite green (MG), Crystal violet (CV) and first time mixture of pollutants (CV+MG) dyes in 1 : 2 ratio. These synthesized NCs are analyzed by using many techniques such as P‐XRD, FE‐SEM, HR‐TEM, BET and UV‐Vis spectrophotometer. Kinetics and mechanism of photocatalytic degradation is also explored. The photocatalytic degradation followed the order (CV+MG) (1 : 2) binary system > MG > CV dyes. On the other hand, an antibacterial activity is also investigated against Gram positive (+ve) bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Enterococcus faecalis (E . faecalis) as well as Gram negative (−ve) bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), and Citrobacter sp . The ZnO/GO NCs followed the antibacterial activity order: E. coli > S. aureus ~ Citrobacter sp . > E. faecalis and the inhibition zones diameters are 20, 15, 15 and 10 mm respectively which is comparable with standard drug Gentamycin.