Photocatalytic degradation of Alizarin Red S using simply synthesized ZnO nanoparticles

This paper reports the synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic degradation application of ZnO nanoparticles. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile and low-temperature process and characterized by using various analytical tools. The morphological, structural and optical characterizations revealed that the synthesized products are nanoparticles, grown in high density, possessing a wurtzite hexagonal phase and exhibiting good optical properties. For photocatalytic degradation, Alizarin Red S, a widely used textile dye, was used as a model organic compound. The photocatalytic degradation was performed under UV light irradiation and under optimum conditions, about 77% of photo-degradation of Alizarin Red S dye was achieved in 90 min. By comparing the photocatalytic performance with commercially available PC-500, it was observed that the synthesized ZnO nanoparticles demonstrated a superior photocatalytic performance as compared to commercial photocatalyst. Therefore, this work demonstrates that simply synthesized ZnO nanomaterials can efficiently be used for the photocatalytic degradation of other commonly used textile dyes. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.