Synthesis and Characterization of ZnO-ZrO₂ Nanocomposites for Photocatalytic Degradation and Mineralization of Phenol

Table 1

Crystallite size and percentage of phase content of nanocomposites obtained from Debye-Scherrer equation and Garvie and Nicholson method, respectively. m represents monoclinic and t tetragonal phase of ZrO₂. w indicates the wurtzite structure of ZnO.

Sample	Crystallite size (nm)	h k l	Phase content (%)
ZnO	33.2	(101)	100%
ZrO2	14.3	(101)m	59.7%
	15.4	(−111)t	40.3%
13ZnO-ZrO2	18.2	(101)t	100%
	—	—
25ZnO-ZrO2	14.5	(101)t	88.0%
	44.7	(101)w	12.0%
50ZnO-ZrO2	14.4	(101)t	82.0%
	48.3	(101)w	18.0%
75ZnO-ZrO2	13.8	(101)t	60.9%
	44.6	(101)w	39.1%