Sonosynthesis and Characterization of TiO2/ZrO2 Nanocomposite and Photocatalytic degradation of Congo red Dye under UV Light

NanoTiO2, nanoZrO2 and TiO2/ZrO2 nanocomposite were prepared via sol gel method by using ultrasonic irradiation. The precursor sol of zirconium was prepared from an aqueous solution of ZrCl4 and titanium tetra 2-propoxide was diluted by 2-propanol and deionized water The TiO2/ZrO2 nanocomposite was synthesized from directly mixing Titanium dried gel into Zirconium gel. The reaction mixture was placed under ultrasonic irradiation probe for 2 hours. The filtrated composite gel was washed and calcinated at 500 °C for 3h in furnace. The FT-IR spectroscopy and the XRD study were exhibited that the crystal structure and purity of the TiO2/ZrO2 nano composite FESEM images were indicated the morphology and the average size of the NPs. The mean crystallite size of the NanoTiO2, nanoZrO2 and TiO2/ZrO2 nanocomposite were determined 57, 19 and 23 nm respectively. The photocatalytic performance was highly increased when nano-composite of TiO2/ZrO2 was used to degradation of Congo red (CR) solution. The TiO2/ZrO2 nano composite was shown higher photo-degradation efficiency than the pure nanoTiO2 and nanoZrO2.