Photocatalytic, hydrophobic and antimicrobial characteristics of ZnO nano needle embedded cement composites

•ZnO needles was prepared by using coprecipitation method.•Homogenous cement-ZnO(%) composites were formed.•Absorption study of Rhodamine 6G was performed to test photocatalytic ability.•Contact angle method was used to view hydrophobic nature of cement-ZnO(%).•Enhanced antimicrobial activity was demonstrated in cement-ZnO(%) composites.

In this work, ZnO nanoneedles were synthesized employing a co-precipitation method. Further, white cement composites were prepared with ZnO filler of 5%, 10% and 15% by weight ratio. With the increasing concentration of ZnO in cement matrix the synergetic effect between ZnO and white cement matrix was observed through FE-SEM and UV-visible. We studied the photocatalytic degradation of pollutant (Rhodamine 6G) using ZnO nano-needles embedded in white cement matrix under ultraviolet irradiation (UV) along with enhanced hydrophobic nature and the antimicrobial property of the cement. The pseudo-first order kinetics was found in a photocatalytic process, and degradation rate constant was enhanced up to 0.147 min−1 for ZnO modified cement which was significantly higher than the pure cement (0.037 min−1). Antimicrobial studies were performed using bacterial strains Escherichia.coli (JM109, Promega Gram negative), Bacillus subtilis (MTCC121, Gram-positive) and fungal strain Aspergillus niger (MTCC281) for all the composites. A significant improvement in bacterial and fungal degradation was observed in ZnO modified cement than control and pure cement in a dose-dependent manner.