ZnO nanoparticles synthesis by sacrificial composite monolith method and enhanced photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye

ZnO nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by thermally decomposing composite monolith of Zn and chitosan. XRD, FT-IR, FE-SEM, EDX, and UV-Visible spectroscopy have been used to characterize the synthesized nanoparticles. The synthesized material was found to possess the hexagonal wurtzite phase. These ZnO nanoparticles were subjected to photocatalytic investigations through the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) dye under UV irradiation. The influence of various factors, such as initial concentration of dye, catalyst loading, time of contact, and pH on the photodegradation of methylene blue dye were investigated. Photodegradation experiments showed that the highest degradation of about 94.8 % was achieved within 180 min with catalyst loading 0.4 g/L. Photocatalysis experiments follow a pseudo first-order reaction kinetics. The photodegradation mechanism is also discussed in detail.