Ebrahimi Roya, Hossienzadeh Khosro, Maleki Afshin, Ghanbari Reza, Rezaee Reza, Safari Mahdi, Shahmoradi Behzad, Daraei Hiua, Jafari Ali, Yetilmezsoy Kaan, Puttaiah Shivaraju Harikaranahalli
1Environmental Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran.
2Social Determinant of Health Research, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran.
J Environ Health Sci Eng. 2019 Apr 1;17(1):479-492. doi: 10.1007/s40201-019-00366-x. eCollection 2019 Jun.
Azo dyes represent the most commonly used group of dyes in the textile industry. These organic dyes are mainly resistant to biodegradation and may exhibit toxic and carcinogenic properties. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of doping zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) with transition metals (silver, manganese, and copper) on the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO NPs in the removal of Direct Blue 15 dye from aqueous environments under ultraviolet (UV) radiation and visible light irradiation.
One or two metals were used for doping the NPs. In total, seven types of undoped and transition metal-doped NPs were synthesized using the thermal solvent method with ZnO precursors and transition metal salts. The characteristics of the synthesized NPs were determined based on the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and zeta potential measurements.
The produced ZnO NPs did not exhibit any particular photocatalytic activities under UV radiation and visible light irradiation. The highest removal efficiency under UV radiation was about 74% in the presence of silver-doped ZnO NPs, while the maximum efficiency under visible light was 70% in the presence of copper-doped ZnO NPs. The lowest removal efficiency was related to pure ZnO, which was 18.4% and 14.6% under UV and visible light irradiation, respectively. Although the efficiency of dye removal under visible light was not high compared to UV radiation, this efficiency was noteworthy in terms of both practical and economic aspects since it was achieved without the presence of ultraviolet radiation.
The synthesis of transition metal-doped ZnO nanophotocatalysts (with one or two metals) under UV radiation or visible light irradiation could be used as an efficient and promising technology for the photocatalytic removal of Direct Blue 15 dye from aqueous environments.
偶氮染料是纺织工业中最常用的染料类别。这些有机染料主要抗生物降解，可能具有毒性和致癌特性。本研究的目的是研究用过渡金属（银、锰和铜）掺杂氧化锌（ZnO）纳米颗粒（NPs）对ZnO NPs在紫外（UV）辐射和可见光照射下从水环境中去除直接蓝15染料的光催化效率的影响。
使用一种或两种金属对NPs进行掺杂。总共使用ZnO前驱体和过渡金属盐通过热溶剂法合成了七种未掺杂和过渡金属掺杂的NPs。基于扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、能量色散X射线光谱（EDX）、X射线衍射（XRD）、傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）光谱、动态光散射（DLS）、原子力显微镜（AFM）和zeta电位测量来确定合成NPs的特性。
所制备的ZnO NPs在UV辐射和可见光照射下未表现出任何特定的光催化活性。在掺银ZnO NPs存在下，UV辐射下的最高去除效率约为74%，而在掺铜ZnO NPs存在下，可见光下的最大效率为70%。最低去除效率与纯ZnO相关，在UV和可见光照射下分别为18.4%和14.6%。尽管与UV辐射相比，可见光下的染料去除效率不高，但从实际和经济方面来看，该效率是值得注意的，因为它是在没有紫外辐射的情况下实现的。
在UV辐射或可见光照射下合成过渡金属掺杂的ZnO纳米光催化剂（含一种或两种金属）可作为从水环境中光催化去除直接蓝15染料的一种高效且有前景的技术。
