Kinetics of adsorption and photocatalytic decomposition of a diazo dye by nanocomposite ZnO–MgO

The synthesis of ZnO–MgO nanocomposite via modified Pechini method was performed. The crystalline structure and the morphology of nanocrystals were studied by X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy. The study on the kinetics of diazo dye adsorption and its photocatalytic decomposition on the surface of nanocomposite was performed. It was shown that the rate of adsorption process in aqueous solution is described by a kinetic equation of the first order. The application of the nanocomposite allows to significantly increase the efficiency of UV water treatment and its purification from the dye. However, a brief deviation of experimental data on the rate of photocatalytic degradation from the values of the widely used kinetic equation of the first order is observed.