Sonochemical synthesis of Pr-doped ZnO nanoparticles for sonocatalytic degradation of Acid Red 17

• Synthesis of ZnO and PrxZn1−xO samples by sonochemical method.
• Sonocatalytic degradation of a textile dye by PrxZn1−O nanoparticles.
• Characterization of the synthesised nanomaterials by XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM and XPS.

Undoped and Pr-doped ZnO nanoparticles were prepared using a simple sonochemical method, and their sonocatalytic activity was investigated toward degradation of Acid Red 17 (AR17) under ultrasonic (US) irradiation. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. The extent of sonocatalytic degradation was higher compared with sonolysis alone. The decolorization efficiency of sonolysis alone, sonocatalysis with undoped ZnO and 5% Pr-doped ZnO was 24%, 46% and 100% within reaction time of 70 min, respectively. Sonocatalytic degradation of AR17 increased with increasing the amount of dopant and catalyst dosage and decreasing initial dye concentration. Natural pH was favored the sonocatalytic degradation of AR17. With the addition of chloride, carbonate and sulfate as radical scavengers, the decolorization efficiency was decreased from 100% to 65%, 71% and 89% at the reaction time of 70 min, respectively, indicating that the controlling mechanism of sonochemical degradation of AR17 is the free radicals (not pyrolysis). The addition of peroxydisulfate and hydrogen peroxide as enhancer improved the degradation efficiency from 79% to 85% and 93% at the reaction time of 50 min, respectively. The result showed good reusability of the synthesized sonocatalyst.