Effective photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B dye by ZnO nanoparticles

Highly crystalline ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized with zinc acetate as precursor and oxalic acid at 80 °C through the simple solution phase approach. The synthesized ZnO NPs possessed monodispersity with the average size 20–30 nm. The crystalline properties revealed the typical hexagonal wurtzite phase with orientation along c-axis. The photocatalytic activity investigation was carried out by performing the decomposition of rhodamine-B dye under UV illumination over as-synthesized ZnO NPs. The rhodamine B dye considerably degraded by ∼95% within 70 min in the presence of as-synthesized ZnO NPs. An excellent rate constant (k=0.0343 min−1) was obtained for the degradation of rhodamine B dye.

► Highly crystalline ZnO NPs were synthesized by solution phase approach at 80 °C.
► Synthesized ZnO NPs exhibited good monodispersity.
► Rhodamine B dye considerably degraded by ∼95% within 70 min over ZnO NPs under UV-light illumination.
► Photocatalytic reaction showed the rate k=0.0343 min−1 and followed the 1st order kinetic mechanism.