Investigation of the influence of tartaric acid quantity and calcination temperature on the morphology, crystal structure, and photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

In this research article, using zinc acetate dihydrate and tartaric acid, six distinct zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized with the sol-gel method to assess the effects of varying the amount of tartaric acid (0.1, 0.05, and 0.01 moles) and the calcination temperatures (400, 500, and 600o C) on the features of morphological, crystal structure, and photocatalytic activity. Moreover, to understand the effect of tartaric acid on photocatalytic activity, UV-visible spectrophotometer analysis was performed by keeping ZnO nanoparticles calcined at 500°C under methylene blue and UV light for 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 minutes. According to the analysis results, raising the tartaric acid moles generates ZnO nanoparticles with a finer and more uniform prismatic shape; it additionally minimizes the porosity of the particles, which decreases the photocatalytic activity. As a result of this, ZnO nanoparticles prepared with 0.05 mol of tartaric acid have the ultimate photocatalytic activity and promote the destruction of over 94.51% of methylene blue in just 90 minutes. The ZnO nanoparticles developed in this study will likely be employed in surface coatings since they do not harm organic materials or human health, are long-lasting, and use light energy to trigger a chemical reaction.

Keywords

• transition metal oxide
• tartaric acid
• sol-gel method
• photochemical material

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