Enhancement of Photocatalytic and Antibacterial Activities of ZnO:Ag Nanopowders Through the Addition of Bamboo Charcoal: An Efficient Natural Adsorbent

This research article explains the removal of methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG) from aqueous solution using adsorption/photodegradation activity of ZnO:Ag/bamboo charcoal (BC) nanocomposite. In addition, the antibacterial studies of the prepared samples were tested against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) Gram-positive and Escherichia coli (E. coli) Gram-negative bacteria by the well diffusion method. The ZnO:Ag/BC nanocomposite exhibits superior photocatalytic activity compared with ZnO:Ag. Remarkable degradation efficiencies of 93.95% (MB) and 95.75% (MG) were recorded for ZnO:Ag/BC nanocomposite after 45 min. The degradation process follows a pseudo-first-order kinetics. The rate constant of ZnO:Ag/BC nanocomposite is two times greater than that of pristine ZnO nanopowder for the degradation of MB dye, while for MG dye degradation, it is three times. It is found that the ZnO:Ag/BC nanocomposite shows a higher rate of dye removal due to excellent adsorbing properties of bamboo charcoal (BC). The ZnO:Ag/BC nanocomposite showed better antibacterial properties compared to ZnO:Ag. In this study, the samples were prepared using a simple and low-cost soft chemical route and they were characterized by optical, structural, surface morphological, antibacterial and photocatalytic properties. These characterization studies substantiate the discussions on the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of the synthesized samples.