Well-organized Zinc oxide nanospheres with enhanced photocatalytic activity

S. Steplin Paul Selvin, I. Sharmila Lydia

Synthesis of visible light driven ZnO nanospheres is of great importance in practical application, such as water purification. In this paper, cysteine capped ZnO (CCZ) nanospheres were prepared by microwave based biomolecule assisted chemical precipitation method. The CCZ nanospheres were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDAX), photoluminescence (PL). The photocatalytic activity of CCZ nanospheres was estimated using Rhodamine B as model pollutant under visible light irradiation. The experimental results exhibited that cysteine molecule were doped into the lattices of ZnO nanospheres and shows noticeable increase in visible-light harvesting ability. The CCZ shows the highest photocatalytic activity than that of bare ZnO counterpart. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of CCZ nanospheres is ascribed owing to its adsorption capacity and enhanced visible light harvesting ability.