Effective photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye by ZnO nanoparticles

Highly crystalline ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized with zinc acetate as precursor and oxalic acid at 80 degrees C through the simple solution phase approach. The synthesized ZnO NPs possessed monodispersity with the average size 20-30 nm. The crystalline properties revealed the typical hexagonal wurtzite phase with orientation along c-axis. The photocatalytic activity investigation was carried out by performing the decomposition of rhodamine-B dye under UV illumination over assynthesized ZnO NPs. The rhodamine B dye considerably degraded by similar to 95% within 70 min in the presence of as-synthesized ZnO NPs. An excellent rate constant (k =0.0343 min(-1)) was obtained for the degradation of rhodamine B dye. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.