Designing, characterization, and evaluation of chitosan-zinc selenide nanoparticles for visible-light-induced degradation of tartrazine and sunset yellow dyes

Employing dyes in different industrial sectors has produced a serious threat to the environment and living or-ganisms of water bodies and land. For the decontamination of such toxic dyes, efforts have been made to develop an efficient, feasible, and low maintenance processes. In this context, chitosan-zinc selenide (CS-ZnSe) nano -particles were prepared through chemical reduction method as the efficient photocatalysts for the decontami-nation of toxic dyes through photocatalysis. Photocatalyst's synthesis was confirmed with the help of FTIR spectroscopy. XRD indicated the hexagonal crystal structure of the CS-ZnSe with a crystallite size of 12 nm. SEM micrographs showed the average nano photocatalyst size as 25 nm. EDX analysis was employed to determine the elemental composition of the CS-ZnSe. An excellent photocatalytic degradation efficiency for tartrazine and sunset yellow dyes was obtained using CS-ZnSe. The results showed a 98% and 97% degradation efficiency for tartrazine dye and sunset yellow (SY) dye at optimized conditions of time (3 h), pH (5), dye concentration (30 ppm), catalyst dosage (0.09 g and 0.01 g) , and at a temperature of 35 C. Findings of the photocatalytic degradation process fitted well with first-order kinetics for both the dyes. Rate constant, 'K' value was found to be 0.001362 min? 1 and 0.001257 min? 1 for tartrazine and SY dyes, respectively. While value for (correlation coefficient, R2) was 0.99307 and 0.99277 for tartrazine and sunset yellow dyes, respectively. Recyclability of the photocatalyst was confirmed using it for consecutive cycles to degrade organic dyes. Results showed that the CH-ZnS possesses excellent efficiency in decontaminating organic dyes from industrial wastewater.

Automated summary

In this study, chitosan-zinc selenide (CS-ZnSe) nanoparticles were used as efficient photocatalysts for decontaminating toxic dyes. The synthesized CS-ZnSe nanoparticles exhibited excellent degradation efficiency for tartrazine and sunset yellow dyes. The photocatalytic degradation process followed first-order kinetics, and the CS-ZnSe nanoparticles showed good recyclability for consecutive cycles of dye degradation. The results highlight the potential of CS-ZnS for removing organic dyes from industrial wastewater.