Sono-Synthesis and characterization of ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite, composition effect on enhancing of photocatalytic properties

Nanocomposite of ZrO2/ZnO was prepared under ultrasonic irradiation by sol gel process from directly mixing Zirconium and Zinc gels. The mixture was placed under ultrasonic irradiation for 2 hours. After the aging time and filtration of the reaction mixture, the filtrated composite gel was calcinated at 500 °C for 3h in furnace. The precursor gels of zirconium and zinc were prepared from dissolving of ZrCl4 and Zn(CH3COO)2.2H2O into deionized water(DI). Nano ZnO, Nano ZrO2 and ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite were characterized. The FT-IR analysis and the XRD study were exhibited that the crystal structure and purity of the ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite FESEM images were indicated the morphology and the average size of the NPs. The average size of the Nano ZnO, Nano ZrO2 and ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite were determined 54, 23and 37 nm respectively. The photocatalytic performance was increased when nanocomposite of ZrO2/ZnO was used to degradation of Congo red (CR) solution. The ZrO2/ZnO nanocomposite was shown higher photo-degradation efficiency of Congo red than of pure nano ZrO2 and nano ZnO.