Study of Photocatalytic activity of ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles

Fauzia Khan, Seraj Anwar Ansari, Anees Ahmad

Dye discharge from the textile industries are one of the major aquatic pollutant which was investigated by photocatalytic methods. ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles are the photocatalysts for the degradation of different dyes i.e. Methylene blue, Amido black 10B, Methyl red and Rose Bengal. A comparative study of photocatalytic degradation of different dyes under solar light was monitor up to 1 hour duration. It was found that Amido Black 10 B shows 99.90 % degradation with ZnO nanoparticle while 39.65 % with TiO2. The percentage degradation for methylene blue was found to be 88.83% and 47% with ZnO and TiO2 NPs respectively. Rose Bengal shows a highest percentage of degradation of 88.8% and 62% with ZnO NPs and TiO2 NPs respectively. The percentage degradation of Methyl Red was found to be 50.5% and 3.11% with TiO2 and ZnO NPs. Comparison of result shown that ZnO nanoparticle is more efficient photocatalyst than TiO2.