ZnO–TiO₂: Synthesis, characterization and evaluation of photo catalytic activity towards degradation of methyl orange

Here in, we report the synthesis and characterization of ZnO–TiO₂ composite as a potential photo catalyst for photo degradation of methyl orange under UV irradiation. ZnO–TiO₂ with 1:1 ratio was synthesized via wet incipient impregnation method using TiO₂ and Zn(NO₃)₂ · 6H₂O as precursor material and the prepared composite was characterized by XRD, EDX and SEM. The synthesized composite was employed as photo catalyst for photo degradation of methyl orange. The photo degradation results showed that ZnO–TiO₂ exhibited better catalytic performance than ZnO and TiO₂ alone. The methyl orange photo degradation efficiency was determined to be 98, 75 and 60% over ZnO–TiO₂, ZnO and TiO₂ respectively using 50 mL solution of 100 mg/L at 40 °C for 120 min. The ZnO–TiO₂ catalyzed photo degradation of methyl orange followed pseudo-first-order kinetic in terms of Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism.