Enhancement the Photocatalytic and Biological Activity of Nano-sized ZnO Using Hyperbranched Polyester

摘要

This work represents the synthesis of nanocomposites based hyperbranched polyester (HPES) and ZnO nanorods (ZnO NRs) as photocatalysts. The nanorods were prepared by thermal treatment of Zn acetate. The nanocomposites were synthesized either by adding of the nano-rods polycondensation reaction (in-situ method, I-HPES/ZnO), or by ex-situ mixing technique (E-HPES/ZnO). The as-prepared ZnO NRs and their nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), surface area (S-BET), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Viz. absorption. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) revealed that the formed NRs are lower than 40 nm in diameter and higher than 100 nm in length. Photocatalytic investigations clarified that modified ZnO-NRs acquire higher reactivity after modification with HPES. The highest photocatalytic degradation were given by E-HPES/ZnO. Durability test proved the feasibility of using the formed nanocomposites several times in the degradation system on the other hand, ZnO suffered a pronounced decrease in the photocatalytic activity. Antibacterial activity emphasized that the obtained nanocomposites have inhibition effect against harmful microorganisms higher than ZnO NRs.