Synthesis and characterization of ZnGa2O4 composites and its photocatalytic properties for energy applications.

ZnGa2O4 nanocomposites have been widely used for photocatalytic degradation of industrial dyes. In this work, ZnGa2O4 was synthesized from zinc sulphate heptahydrate ZnSO4.10H2O and Gallium (III) oxide (Ga2O3) by hydrothermal method. As prepared, ZnGa2O4 nanocomposites was used as a photocatalyst degradation of three organic dyes rhodamine-B, methylene blue, and methyl orange, under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The ZnGa2O4 nanocomposites structure, morphology, size and optical properties were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy (FT-Raman), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopes (TEM) and photoluminescence spectra (PL). Moreover, the results explained the rate-controlling mechanisms of the dye degradation process followed by second-order kinetics. After 100 min of adsorption kinetic models, the decomposition of rhodamine-B (7.2 Ct mg/L, 5.2 Ct mg/L, and 4.1 Ct mg/L), methylene blue (42.8 qt mg/g, 44.8 qt mg/g, and 45.9 qt mg/g), and methyl orange (42.8 qe mg/g, 44.8 qe mg/g, and 45.9 qe mg/g) respectively. This investigation study offers a promising method to design more efficient ZnGa2O4 nanocomposites based photocatalytic degradation of industrial organic dyes.

Adsorption of copper and nickel by using sawdust chitosan nanocomposite beads - A kinetic and thermodynamic study.

The adsorption behavior of biomaterial activated Sawdust-Chitosan nanocomposite beads (SDNCB) powder was investigated along with synthesis and experimental techniques approaches to study the removal efficiency of some heavy metal ions including Ni (II) and Cu (II) ions from aqueous solutions by assessing the surface-modified activated carbon by the cost-effective non-conventional method. Structural analysis of the entitled compound was evaluated by the PXRD techniques and its surface morphology was inferred by the following techniques: TEM, EDAX. The behavior of the functional group presents in the compound was discussed using the FTIR technique. Such parameters like dosage, pH, time, temperature, and initial concentration of copper and nickel were associated with this to examine the effect of adsorption of heavy elements that exist in the portable solution. Further, the cellulose and chitosan beads complex material have an appropriate surface area, it demonstrated metal ions removal efficiency was more appreciable due to the action of activated carbon, where this showed fast rate sorption kinetics due to strong involvement of Cu+ & Ni+ towards cellulose and chitosan's functional groups in the bio composite. The isotherm model so-called Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin model was utilized to plot the experimental adsorption dataset to infer the maximum adsorption capacity. Based on this model, the adsorption properties of the beads treated compound was determined by plotting the graphs in which sorption intensity (n) which implies expected sorption, and the correlation value are 1.989, 0.998, and 0,981 respectively.