Fabrication of zinc oxide/graphene-carbon nanotubes nanocomposite with enhanced dye degradation ability

A comparative study between zinc oxide graphene-carbon nanotubes nanocomposite and ZnO nanoparticles was carried out to investigate their abilities in the degradation of Rhodamine B dye. We utilized the Modified Hummer method to prepare the graphene oxide nanosheet. Moreover, graphene-carbon nanotubes had been synthesized from GO and multi-walled carbon nanotubes with a hydroxyl group. The hydrothermal method was employed to fabricate the zinc oxide graphene-carbon nanotubes nanocomposite from ZnO nanoparticles and graphene-carbon nanotubes. During the characterization by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), all the significant peaks of ZnO and zinc oxide graphene-carbon nanotubes nanocomposite were found in the same phase angle. In addition, the final nanocomposite was also characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS). Finally, from the dye degradation test, it was apparent that zinc oxide graphene-carbon nanotubes nanocomposite showed superior dye removal ability compared to the ZnO nanoparticles.