Reduced Graphene Oxide Loaded with ZCF Magnetic Nanoparticles as a Promising Photocatalyst and Antibacterial Agent

Abstract

Due to waste, pollution, and unequal distribution of the world’s finite freshwater resources, there is currently a problem of water scarcity. Therefore, developing novel, affordable, and efficient techniques for water purification is essential. Here, the photo-assisted degradation of Methyl Orange dye (MO) under visible light and UV was achieved by using reduced graphene oxide (RGO) photocatalyst loaded with Zn_0.5Cu_0.5Fe₂O₄ (ZCF) called MRGO 20. Furthermore, all prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transformation infrared (FTIR), transmission electron microscope (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and Raman analysis. After 40 minutes, the high photocatalytic efficacy effectively eliminated about 96 % of the 10 ppm MO using 20 mg of MRGO 20 NPs at pH 5 under Visible light irradiation. From the results, MRGO 20 demonstrated good performance stability after five cycles of photocatalytic degradation of MO dye. The shown performance of the generated samples in both visible and UV light may motivate further investigation into more potent photocatalysts for water filtering. MRGO 20 NPs nanocomposite displayed great activity against Gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria with a zone of inhibition (ZOI) mm value of 24.0 mm, and high biofilm inhibition of 94.3%. The produced samples’ observed efficacy in both UV and visible light may encourage continued research into more effective photocatalysts for the filtration of water and for biological applications.