Publication

Abstract : Elimination of toxic compounds from our essential commodities such as water, air, foods etc. and provision for safe and clean basic needs is currently one of the most significant international topics for research, especially in food, water and air pollution control. Metal oxides have emerged as one of the most interesting materials in the current period owing to their potential catalytic properties. The II-VI metal oxides are gaining considerable attention in optoelectronics and in rectifying environmental issues due to their ability to produce charge carriers when accelerated with a sufficient amount of energy. The electronic structure, fluorescence and phosphorescence properties and charge transport abilities of the metal oxides have made them photo catalysts. In this paper, we report a precise investigation of structural, optical and photo catalytic properties of industrially and technologically important ZnO and MgxZn(1-x)O nanoparticles. The materials were synthesized via chemical methods using solutions of zinc sulphate, sodium hydroxide, silver nitrate and magnesium sulphate. The structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of the synthesized samples were studied using X-ray diffractometer and UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The average crystallite size of the prepared samples is between 15 to 20 nm. The optical band value of the ZnO nanoparticles was found 3.3 eV. The photocatalytic studies were conducted using an in-house built assembly and photocatalytic degradation of Cr was chosen as a reference. The synthesized MgxZn(1-x)O has been observed as an excellent photocatalyst, and shown promising results for the degradation of Cr(VI).