Statistical analysis of the photocatalytic activity of decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes with ZnO nanoparticles

In this paper we investigate for the first time the statistical analysis of photocatalytic activity of decorated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) with ZnO nanoparticles. For this purpose, MWCNTs are oxidized using mixture of H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 to functionalize with oxygen containing groups. Therefore, functionalized groups act as active site for introducing the ZnO nanoparticles on the outer surface of MWCNTs. The acid treated MWCNTs, synthesized ZnO nanoparticles and MWCNTs–ZnO are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results confirm that the structure of synthesizd ZnO nanoparticles is hexagonal wurtzite and the production of ZnO nanoparticles in the hybrid is successfull. Transmission electron microscopy image show that the outer surface of MWCNTs can be successfully decorated with ZnO nanoparticles. The photocatalytic activity investigation of all studied photocatalysts demonstrate that increasing the UV irradiation time and weight fraction lead to the removal efficiency of methy orange (MO) pollutant. Also, the results reveal that the photocatalytic activity of MWCNTs–ZnO is higher than that of acid treated MWCNTs and ZnO nanoparticles. The statistical parameters of proposed models clarify that all of models can predict the photo degradation of MO.