Utaiyachandran ManojkumarDurairaj KaliannanBalamuralikrishnan BalasubramanianHesam KamyabYasser VasseghianShreeshivadasan ChelliapanPalaninaicker Senthilkumar2024-10-292024-10-292024-06-07https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-024-02000-8This study reported the synthesis and assessment of zinc oxide/iron oxide (ZnO/Fe2O3) nanocomposite as photocatalysts for the degradation of a mixture of methylene red and methylene blue dyes. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms that the crystallite of zinc oxide (ZnO) has a hexagonal wurtzite phase and iron oxide (Fe2O3) has a rhombohedral phase. Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectrum confirms the presence of Zn–O vibration stretching at 428, 480 and 543 cm−1 stretching confirming Fe–O bond formation. Scanning Electron Microscope images exhibited a diverse size and shape of the nanocomposites. The ZnO-90%/Fe2O3-10% and ZnO-10%/Fe2O3-90% nanocomposites reveal good photocatalytic activity with reaction rate constants of 1.5 × 10−2 and 0.66 × 10−2; and 1.3 × 10−2 and 0.60 × 10−2 for methylene blue and methyl red dye respectively. The results revealed that the synthesized ZnO/Fe2O3 nanocomposite is the best catalyst for dye degradation and can be used for industrial applications in future.enDyePhotocatalytic degradationTextile wastewaterZnO/Fe2O3 nanocompositejournal-article