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A series of ZnO nanoparticles decorated on multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-ZnO) was synthesized using a facile solvothermal method. The intrinsic characteristics of as-prepared nanocomposites were studied using a variety of techniques including powder X-Ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), surface area analyzer (BET) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Optical properties studied using UV-Visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy confirmed that the absorbance of ZnO increased in the visible-light region with the incorporation of MWCNTs. In this study, degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) as a dye pollutant was investigated in the presence of pristine ZnO nanoparticles and MWCNTs-ZnO nanocomposites using photocatalysis and sonocatalysis systems separately and simultaneously. The natural sunlight and low power ultrasound were used as an irradiation source. The experimental kinetic data followed the pseudo-first order model in both photocatalytic and sonophotocatalytic processes but the rate constant of sonophotocatalysis is higher than it at photocatalysis process. The sonophotocatalysis was always faster than the respective individual processes due to the more formation of reactive radicals as well as the increase of the active surface area of MWCNTs-ZnO photocatalyst.Chemical oxygen demand (COD) of textile wastewater was measured at regular intervals to evaluate the mineralization of wastewater.

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