Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research

Journal of Advances in Environmental Health Research

Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye over immobilized ZnO nanoparticles: Optimization of calcination conditions

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Reza Darvishi Cheshmeh Soltani 1
Abbas Rezaee 2
Reza Rezaee 3
Mahdi Safari 3
Hassan Hashemi 4
1 Department of Environmental Health, School of Health, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
2 Department of Environmental Health, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
3 Environmental Health Research Center, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran
4 Research Center for Health Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
10.22102/jaehr.2015.40180
Abstract
In the present study, calcination conditions during the synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD). After that, the effect of the type of UV irradiation on the photocatalysis of methylene blue (MB) dye was studied based on the kinetic model obtained at optimum conditions. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) exhibited a reasonable high correlation coefficient between the predicted and experimental values (R2 = 0.95). For a decolorization efficiency of 90%, the optimum calcination temperature and calcination time were identified to be 459 °C and 3.65 h, respectively. According to the reaction rate constant (k), the time required for the removal of MB using UVC lamps (0.027 1/min) was shorter than that of UVA lamps (0.0098 1/min), indicating higher exciting potential of the UVC irradiation for the generation of hydroxyl radicals through photocatalysis. 
Keywords
Nanoparticles
Methylene blue
Zinc oxide
hydroxyl Radical
Kinetics
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