Materials Research Express (Jan 2020)

Synthesis of immobilized ZnO over polyurethane and photocatalytic activity evaluation for the degradation of azo dye under UV and solar light irardiation

  • A Inderyas,
  • I A Bhatti,
  • A Ashar,
  • M Ashraf,
  • A Ghani,
  • M Yousaf,
  • M Mohsin,
  • M Ahmad,
  • S Rafique,
  • N Masood,
  • M Iqbal

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab715f
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 2
p. 025033

Abstract

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were immobilized on polyurethane foam (PUF) and employed for the degradation of Acid black 1 dye (AB1). The ZnO/PUF was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) techniques. Process variables i.e., dye concentration, pH, concentration of H _2 O _2 , irradiation time were optimized for maximum degradation of dye. ZnO/PUF showed promising efficiency for the degradation of AB1 dye and up to 86% and 65% dye degradation was achieved under UV and solar light irradiation at neutral pH, 4% H _2 O _2 , 240 min/sunlight and 75 min/UV irradiation time using 40 mg l ^−1 dye initial concentration. The optimum conditions were applied for the treatment of textile wastewater and biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total organic carbon (TOC) were reduced up to 70% and 80%, respectively. In view of promising photocatalytic activity (PCA), ZnO/PUF could possibly be used for the treatment of wastewater contains dyes.

Keywords