Facile sonochemical-assisted synthesis of Cu/ZnO/AlO nanocomposites under vacuum: Optical and photocatalytic studies.

This paper reports on the synthesis of Cu/ZnO/AlO nanocomposites via a facile sonochemical-assisted approach using new starting reactants. This study was conducted to synthesis and photocatalytic evaluation of the Cu/ZnO/AlO nanocomposite in vacuum conditions. The XRD results showed that Cu/ZnO/AlO and CuO/ZnO/AlO nanocomposites could be obtained after annealing at 600 °C for 3 h in vacuum conditions and in the air, respectively. The effects of Cu:Zn:Al ratio, ultrasonic irradiation, power, time, and capping agent on the product composition and morphology were also studied. Finally, the efficiency of various as-synthesized Cu/ZnO/AlO nanocomposites for decolorization of methylene blue were evaluated. According to the results, using ultrasonic irradiation and annealing under vacuum, the efficiency is improved up to 100%. Because in this situation Cu/CuO/ZnO/AlO is formed, which has a better absorption (due to CuO) and conductivity (due to Cu) than CuO/ZnO/AlO for the photocatalysis process.