CuO/ZnTe nanocomposite for photodegradation of malachite green from industrial effluents to clean environment

Environmental pollution is a big global issue that should be addressed timely. Most industries discharge their effluents into rivers, lakes, etc. near to those industries. These effluents not only affect the aquatic organism but also indirectly impact on the terrestrial lives. Therefore, the hazardous materials from this toxic effluent must be eliminated before discarding it in the river. Photodegradation removal is the best strategy to degrade noxious dyes under sunlight, which is readily available. In this work, we synthesized CuO/ZnTe nanocomposite with a hydrothermal method applied to mineralize harmful malachite green dye in aqueous medium (water). Different analytical approaches were employed to determine the physical characteristics of the synthesized nanostructure. The photocatalytic results of CuO/ZnTe nanocomposite give better efficiency of 97.2% as compared to CuO (76%) and ZnTe (86%) owing to its high surface area, more significant number of active zones, and prevention from recombination of photogenerated charge carriers. The scavenger tests can also be applied to investigate the mechanism of the mineralization of organic pollutant. The t-BuOH scavenger shows the maximum reduction in photocatalytic efficiency from 97.2 to 61%. Our finding suggests that the fabricated nanocomposite will also apply to another environmental problem with slight modification of morphology, crystallite size, and tuning of the bandgap.