Green synthesis and characterization of Zinc Oxide nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of dye pollutants

In recent times, photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants by inorganic metal oxide semiconductors attracts more and more widely attention [1-2]. ZnO -based photocatalyst has been widely used in the photodegradation of organic dye pollutants, which has the advantages low cost, less pollutant to environment, suitable band gap and a large exciton binding energy [3-5]. Herein we have reported the visible-light-driven photodegradation of Malachite Green (MG) dye over green synthesized Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles photocatalyst. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple method using leaves of Malva parviflora. The green synthesized ZnO nanoparticles were characterized by UV- visible spectroscopy, X- ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron microscopy (FESEM) and Energy dispersive analysis of x-ray (EDAX). The results showed that ZnO nanoparticles have hexagonal wurtzite structure with nanocrystalline size. The Photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanoparticles was evaluated through photodegradation of Malachite Green under direct sunlight irradiation. The results confirmed that the green synthesized ZnO nanoparticles exhibited excellent photodegradation efficiency against Malachite Green, a cationic water-pollutant dye released by the textile industries

Keywords:

Green synthesis , Zinc oxide nanoparticle , photocatalytic degradation , Malachite Green