Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using pullulan-mediated porous zinc oxide microflowers
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange using pullulan-mediated porous zinc oxide microflowers Eleen Dayana Mohamed Isa 1 & Nurfatehah Wahyuny Che Jusoh 1,2 & Roshasnorlyza Hazan 3 & Kamyar Shameli 1 Received: 2 April 2020 / Accepted: 21 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract One of mankind’s biggest concerns is water pollution. Textile industry emerged as one of the main contributors with dyes as the main pollutant. Presence of dyes in water is very dangerous due to their toxicity; thus, it is important to remove them from water. In these recent years, heterogeneous advance oxidation process surfaced as a possible dyes’ removal technique. This process utilizes semiconductor as photocatalyst to degrade the dyes in presence of light and zinc oxide (ZnO) appears to be a promising photocatalyst for this process. In this study, pullulan, a biopolymer, was used to produce porous ZnO microflowers (ZnO-MFs) through green synthesis via precipitation method. The effects of pullulan’s amount on the properties of ZnO-MFs were investigated. The ZnO-MF particle size decreased with the increased of pullulan amount. Interestingly, formation of pores occurred in presence of pullulan. The synthesized ZnO-MFs have the surface area ranging from 6.22 to 25.65 m2 g−1 and pore volume up to 0.1123 cm3 g−1. The ZnO-MF with the highest surface area was chosen for photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO). The highest degradation occurred in 300 min with 150 mg catalyst dosage, 10 ppm initial dye concentration, and pH 7 experimental conditions. However, through comparison of photodegradation of MO with all synthesized ZnO-MFs, 25PZ exhibited the highest degradation rate. This shows that photocatalytic activity is not dependent on surface area alone. Based on these results, ZnO-MF has the potential to be applied in wastewater treatment. However, further improvement is needed to increase its photocatalytic activity. Keywords Green synthesis . Zinc oxide . Microflowers . Porous . Photocatalytic activity
Introduction Responsible Editor: Sami Rtimi * Kamyar Shameli [email protected] Eleen Dayana Mohamed Isa [email protected] Nurfatehah Wahyuny Che Jusoh [email protected] Roshasnorlyza Hazan [email protected] 1
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2
Advanced Materials Research Group, Center of Hydrogen Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
3
Malaysian Nuclear Agency, Bangi, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia
Since the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, mankind has made many advances in terms of manufacturing and technology. However, with these advances, it was discovered that there were many adverse effects and one of these is water pollution. Many industrial manufacturing companies contribute to water pollution and one of the biggest sources of
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