A Comparative Photocatalytic Activity of ZnO/SiO2 and V2O5-ZnO/SiO2 by Investigating the Degradation of Rhodamine B

ZnO/SiO2 was prepared using sol-gel method, and vanadium particles were loaded on this nano-photocatalyst by wet incipient method. They characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive (EDX) analysis andFouriertransform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The XRD patterns showed that the zinc oxide samples have a wurtzite structure and vanadium doped is in V2O5 crystalline structure. The particle sizes werearound 32 nmcalculated using Scherrer’s equation. For photocatalytic test, decomposition of Rhodamine B(RB), as an organic pollutant, was carried out. The photocatalyst V2O5- ZnO/ SiO2 was found to be more efficient as compared with ZnO/SiO2.