Facile synthesis of phase pure ZnAl2O4 nanoparticles for effective photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes

Abstract

The present work focuses on the surfactant mediated synthesis of ZnAl2O4 nanoparticles (1−3) using sol–gel method. 1 has been synthesized without any surfactant and during the synthesis of 2 and 3 cationic (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and anionic (sodium lauryl sulfate) surfactant, respectively, have been added. 1–3 have been characterized by P-XRD, FT-IR, SEM, SAED, TEM and BET techniques which suggest that surfactant reduces the particle size of ZnAl2O4 nanoparticles to half (12 nm in 1, 6 nm in 2 and 3). Zeta (ζ) potential measurements have been performed to determine the surface charges of all the samples. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of these ZnAl2O4 nanoparticles have also been investigated. 2 exhibits better adsorption (28–41%) and degradation (97–99%) efficiency for anionic dyes due to high surface area (129.62 m2 g−1) and positively charged surface (ζ potential 30.06 mV). Radical trapping experiments suggest O2[rad]− and OH[rad] to be the major reactive species for the degradation of dyes. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.