Potential of Scenedesmus-fabricated ZnO nanorods in photocatalytic reduction of methylene blue under direct sunlight: kinetics and mechanism

Abstract Organic synthetic dyes are widely used in several industries; however, their inherent resistance to biodegradation necessitates to investigate alternative methods for the remediation of this class of hazardous substances. In the present study, a green synthesis of ZnO nanorods was achieved in a fast, environment-friendly, and safe microwave process employing algal extract. Different metabolites like sugars, proteins, fatty acids, amino acids, and vitamins present in the algal extract reduced the $ Zn^{2+} $ into ZnO. The XRD analysis showed that the nanostructure was a crystalline hexagonal nanorod having a crystalline size of 27.37 nm. The XPS spectra of ZnO nanorod showed characteristic peaks at binding energy 1043, 1020, 496, 137, 87, and 8 eV corresponding to $ Zn2p_{1/2} $, $ Zn2p_{3/2} $, $ Zn_{LMM} $, $ Zn_{3s} $, $ Zn_{3p} $, $ Zn_{3d} $, respectively. The synthesized ZnO nanorods were in-situ functionalized and showed strong catalytic activity in photoreduction of a model organic dye methylene blue (MB) under direct sunlight irradiation. Synthesized ZnO nanorods showed a complete (100%) reduction of model dye MB from its 10 mg/L aqueous solution. The photocatalytic degradation of MB followed the Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The rate of ZnO-catalyzed photocatalytic degradation depends on the concentrations of ZnO, pH, and sunlight irradiation. The ZnO nanorod-catalyzed photoreduction of MB involves hydroxyl radicals. Algal-mediated and microwave-assisted synthesis provides a scalable source of metal oxide nanoparticles for the remediation of dye-containing wastewaters under natural sunlight. Apart from application in the removal of dyes, ZnO nanorods are excellent material for applications in semiconductors, electronics, optics, bio-imaging, and drug delivery..

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2021

Erschienen:

2021

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:28

Enthalten in:

Environmental science and pollution research - 28(2021), 22 vom: 02. Feb., Seite 28234-28250

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Mahana, Abhijeet [VerfasserIn]
Mehta, Surya Kant [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]

Themen:

Michaelis-Menten kinetics
Microalgae
Photodegradation
XPS
ZnO nanorod

Anmerkungen:

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature 2021

doi:

10.1007/s11356-021-12682-7

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

OLC2125793369