A facile synthesis of ZnWO4 nanoparticles by microwave assisted technique and its application in photocatalysis

A simple microwave assisted technique has been successfully developed to synthesize ZnWO4 nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction results indicated that the synthesized nanoparticles exhibited only wolframite structure. Structural, morphological and optical properties of ZnWO4 nanoparticles have been analyzed by XRD, SEM, TEM EDAX, UV–vis and FT-IR spectral measurements. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image revealed that particle size of ZnWO4 nanoparticles was found to be 10 nm, the band-gap of ZnWO4 nanoparticles was found to be 3.4 eV. The photocatalytic activities for aqueous Rhodamine B and Methylene Blue samples were investigated and observed that ZnWO4 nanoparticles exhibited highly enhanced photocatalytic activity towards RhB than MB.

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► Nanocrystalline ZnWO4 particles were successfully prepared by a microwave method.
► Spherical morphology with a 10 nm size.
► The band is 3.4 eV.
► The photodegradation of RhB was 95% within 25 min.