Photocatalytic removal of carcinogenic reactive red S3B dye by using ZnO and Cu doped ZnO nanoparticles synthesized by polyol method: A kinetic study

The sunlight irradiated photocatalytic degradation of Reactive Red S3B was carried out using both ZnO and Cu doped ZnO nanoparticles. Both ZnO and Cu-doped ZnO decolourize the respective dyes but Cu-doped ZnO nanoparticles were clearly more powerful catalyst than ZnO. The kinetics of the photocatalytic degradation was also studied. It was found that the degradation of Reactive Red S3B followed the pseudo first-order kinetics. These photocatalysts are efficient and environment-friendly and can be highly useful for the wastewater treatment contaminated with these carcinogenic synthetic dyes.