PREPARATION OF POLYANILINE/ZnO NANOCOMPOSITES BY USING ARC-DISCHARGE SYNTHESIZED ZNO NANOPARTICLES AND PHOTOCATALYTIC APPLICATIONS

Polyaniline (PANI) and PANI/ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized by the chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline and aniline with the presence of ZnO nanoparticles, respectively. The ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by arc-discharge method were used in this study to produce PANI/ZnO nanocomposites. Aniline/ZnO nanoparticles molar ratio was changed to investigate the effect of ZnO nanoparticles to the characteristic of the PANI. The scanning electron microscope analysis showed that ZnO nanoparticles were completely dispersed in PANI matrix homogeneously. It is revealed that shifting to the higher wavenumbers occurred by the increasing ZnO nanoparticle content in fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. Furthermore, degradation of malachite green in aqueous solution was carried out with the prepared nanocomposites under ultraviolet irradiation. The experimental results showed that 1.2 g/L of the nanocomposite could catalyze green solution above 98% after 180 min of irradiation.