Laser Enhanced Photocatalyic Degradation of Methylene blue using Nanostructured ZnO Catalyst based on Interfacial Charge Transfer

Abstract

In this research, annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst water putrefaction system was built using sun light and different wavelength lasers as stimulating light sources to enhance photocatalytic degradation activity of methylene blue (MB) dye as a model based on interfacial charges transfer. The structural, crystallite size, morphological, particle size, optical properties and degradation ability of annealed nanostructured ZnO were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and UV-VIS Spectrometer, respectively. XRD results demonstrated a pure crystalline hexagonal wurtzite with crystalline size equal to 23 nm. From AFM results, the average particle size was 79.25nm. All MB samples and MB with annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst were exposed under sunlight and lasers with (632.8,532 and 405 ) with 1.6 mW\mm2 power density irradiation for (0,30,60 and 90) minutes. UV-VIS Spectrometer was used to evaluate the photodegradiation of MB with and without annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst where an appreciable photocatalytic generation of hydroxyl was radicals exhibited due to increasing charge separation rate and decreasing recombination rate .Nanostructured ZnO Overall results show that MB degradation achieved 66% after 90 minutes using 405nm laser irradiation, while the reaction rate constant that fits a pseudo-first order kinetics (ka) is 0.011min-1 compared to 0.0001min-1 using MB alone . This study proved that 405 nm laser and sun light are highly efficient sources to enhance interfacial charge transfer to improve photodegredation of MB dye using annealed nanostructured ZnO.