Synthesis and characterisation of copper vanadate quantum dots / nanostructured zinc oxide

0D/3D heterojunction photocatalyst, specifically copper vanadate (CuVA) quantum dots (0D) / nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) (3D), has been prepared using in-situ reaction method. pH of 8 yielded the optimum nanostructure for the hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanorods. Characterisation of heterojunction photocatalysts obtained using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis indicates that this method is effective for incorporating quantum dots (QDs) onto ZnO. FTIR at wavenumber 3537, 1360 and 734 cm−1 showed a decreasing transmission peak as the amount of CuVA increases with respect to ZnO. EDX had showed an increasing trend in copper and vanadium elemental percentage in CuVA-ZnO as the targeted CuVA loading increases. 30 wt% CuVA QDs loaded onto ZnO was found to be the optimal mass loading to degrade sulfadiazine (SDZ), at 17.01% with initial concentration of 10 mgL−1. This work is expected to provide a suitable alternative as a photocatalyst to degrade pollutants, with antibiotics being the focus of this work.