{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,13]],"date-time":"2026-10-13T14:43:18Z","timestamp":1791902598433,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,28]],"date-time":"2021-09-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1632787200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and the European Union (European Structural and Investment Funds - Operational Programme Research, Development and Education),","award":["Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01\/0.0\/0.0\/16_025\/0007293."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01\/0.0\/0.0\/16_025\/0007293."]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nanomaterials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The photocatalytic activity of eco-friendly zinc oxide doped silica nanocomposites, synthesized via a co-precipitation method followed by heat-treatment at 300, 600, and 900 \u00b0C is investigated. The samples have been characterized by employing X-ray diffraction method, and further analyzed using the Rietveld Refinement method. The samples show a space group P63mc with hexagonal structure. The prepared composites are tested for their photocatalytic activities for the degradation of methyl orange-based water pollutants under ultra-violet (UV) irradiation using a 125 W mercury lamp. A systematic analysis of parameters such as the irradiation time, pH value, annealing temperatures, and the concentration of sodium hydroxide impacting the degradation of the methyl orange (MO) is carried out using UV-visible spectroscopy. The ZnO.SiO2 nanocomposite annealed at 300 \u00b0C at a pH value of seven shows a maximum photo-degradation ability (~98.1%) towards methyl orange, while the photo-degradation ability of ZnO.SiO2 nanocomposites decreases with annealing temperature (i.e., for 600 and 900 \u00b0C) due to the aspect ratio. Moreover, it is seen that with increment in the concentration of the NaOH (i.e., from 1 to 3 g), the photo-degradation of the dye component is enhanced from 20.9 to 53.8%, whereas a reverse trend of degradation ability is observed for higher concentrations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nano11102548","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,28]],"date-time":"2021-09-28T21:38:09Z","timestamp":1632865089000},"page":"2548","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":81,"title":["Excellent UV-Light Triggered Photocatalytic Performance of ZnO.SiO2 Nanocomposite for Water Pollutant Compound Methyl Orange Dye"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Sunil","family":"Rohilla","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University, Jind 126102, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9422-3496","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ankita","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Adarsh Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Bhiwani 127021, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vibhor","family":"Kumar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL 60115, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Suman","family":"Kumari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University, Jind 126102, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7643-8450","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michal","family":"Petru","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Machinery Construction, Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation, Technical University of Liberec, Studentsk\u00e1 1402\/2, 46117 Liberec, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7320-0036","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nesrine","family":"Amor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Machinery Construction, Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation, Technical University of Liberec, Studentsk\u00e1 1402\/2, 46117 Liberec, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0822-698X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad Tayyab","family":"Noman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Machinery Construction, Institute for Nanomaterials, Advanced Technologies and Innovation, Technical University of Liberec, Studentsk\u00e1 1402\/2, 46117 Liberec, Czech Republic"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3340-5317","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jasvir","family":"Dalal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh University, Jind 126102, India"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,9,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3441","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ceramint.2018.10.259","article-title":"Ag\/\u03b1Fe2O3-rGO novel ternary nanocomposites: Synthesis, characterization, and pho-tocatalytic activity","volume":"45","author":"Karimi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Ceram. 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