Photodegradation of methylene blue with sphere-like ZnO particles prepared via aqueous solution

Abstract

Photocatalysis is based on generation of electron-hole pairs under UV light whose energy exceeds the band-gap energy of the semiconductor material itself. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye was carried out under UV light in the presence of zinc oxide (ZnO). ZnO particles were synthesized by a simple chemical precipitation method in which carboxymethyl inulin was used as an additive. The experiments show that synthesized sphere-like ZnO particles exhibit a remarkable photocatalytic activity. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.