Structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of MgO/ZnO nanocomposites prepared by a hydrothermal method

MgO/ZnO nanocomposites were synthesized by a hydrothermal method at 180 °C for 15 h. The XRD results showed that MgO phase occurred over the whole range of Mg concentration used. The MgO induced a growth of crystallite size of ZnO. The particle shape of ZnO altered from an agglomerated nanosheet to a hexagonal platelet when loading with MgO and MgO was shaped in small rod structures. The optical band gap was increased from 3.190 to 3.225 eV. The photocatalytic degradation depended upon the irradiation time and MgO loading contents. In this study, the 5 mol% MgO/ZnO nanocomposite exhibited the best photocatalytic degradation of 98.3% during irradiation by blacklight for 90 min.