Zinc oxide (ZnO) particles were successfully synthesized via sol-gel approach using zinc acetate dihydrate (Zn(CH3COO)2.2H2O) and ammonia (NH4OH) solution as precursors. By adjusting the reaction parameters such as amount of ammonia, reaction time as well as complexing agent aluminium sulphate Al2(SO4)3, ZnO particles with different morphologies i.e. rod-like, rice-like and disk-like could be synthesized. The effectiveness of ZnO particles with different morphologies (rod-like, rice-like and disk-like) on the photocatalytic activity has been studied. The results showed that rod-like ZnO particles were the most effective in degrading the Rhodamine B (RhB) solution under the illumination of ultraviolet (UV) light. The rate constant was found to be first order, with rod-like particles was the highest (0.06329 min-1), followed by rice-like ZnO particles (0.0431 min-1) and disk-like ZnO particles (0.02448 min-1).
Fig. 1. Rod-like ZnO nanoparticles.
Fig. 2. Cone-like ZnO nanoparticles.
Fig. 3. Disc-like ZnO nanoparticles.
Fig. 4. Degradation of RhB solution by rod-like ZnO nanoparticles.
[Reference: SY. Pung, W.P. Lee, and A. Azizan, “Kinetic study of organic dye degradation using ZnO particles with different morphologies as a photocatalyst”, Int. J. Inorg. Chem., (2012) doi:10.1155/2012/608183.]
