Zinc oxide/carbon nanotubes nanocomposite: Synthesis, characterization and catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol via laser assistant method

Abstract ZnO nanoparticles and their decoration on the CNTs with different concentrations were well-prepared by pulsed laser ablation method in liquid environment in just one step for removal 4-nitrophenol. The changing of the generated nanostructured materials was based on the surrounding medium: ultra-pure water and the functionalized CNTs solution, while the concentration amounts of the generated ZnO nanoparticles were controlled via irradiated laser time. The properties of the synthesized ZnO/CNTs nanocomposite structure in comparison with that of ZnO nanoparticles and CNTs were studied by several techniques to prove the generation of nanostructure form of ZnO the complete interaction between ZnO nanoparticles and CNTs. For the catalytic investigation, the produced samples show the high catalytic performance for completing the reduction process of 4-nitrophenol, especially when ZnO nanoparticles decorated the outer surface of CNTs in compared with that of just ZnO nanoparticles, which confirmed the impotent of using CNTs for a collated large amount to enhance the efficiency against the hazard compounds.