Photocatalytic degradation of Rose Bengal dye over mechanochemically synthesized zinc oxide under visible light irradiation

Present work summarized efficient synthesis of ZnO by mechanochemical method via zinc oxalate dihydrate precursor for studies of the photocatalytic degradation of Rose Bengal dye. The process of conversion of zinc oxalate dihydrate to ZnO was studied by TGA-DTG analysis and FT-IR Spectroscopy, XRD data obtained clearly revealed the hexagonal wurtzite crystallite structures of ZnO. FE-SEM images confirmed nanocrystalline morphology of ZnO with an approximately uniform particle size distribution. The purity of ZnO was confirmed by EDX study. The optical band gap of ZnO was determined from UV-Visible spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO was investigated with degradation of Rose Bengal dye. The colorimetric absorbance measurement was used to estimate degradation efficiency. The catalytic activity was studied with reference to the condition of dye concentration, photocatalyst loading capacity, pH of dye solution, irradiation time, etc. Photocatalytic degradation of Rose Bengal dye over mechanochemically synthesized ZnO under visible light irradiation was successfully studied.