Statistical Optimization of Zinc Oxide Nanarod Synthesis for Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

In this work, synthesis process parameters of Zinc Oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) photocatalyst is optimized using Taguchi Method to obtain the highest degradation rate of Methylene Blue dye, MB. The Taguchi L27 (38) orthogonal array technique was used to determine the optimum conditions for the synthesis of the nanostructured photocatalyst. Eight important synthesis process parameters were chosen in the analysis while the effects of the parameters were studied using signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio analysis using minitab-16. The ZnO NRs photocatalyst was synthesized via solution process route based on the parameters obtained from the layout of the orthogonal arrays. The optimized synthesized nanorods was then characterized using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), ultraviolet-visible near-infrared (UV-VIS-NIR), and Raman spectroscopies while the photodegradation of MB was determined by UV-VIS spectrum analysis under ultraviolet light irradiation. The results show that ZnO NRs with hexagonal wurtzite structure and bandgap energy of 3.25 eV have been obtained. The Taguchi analysis based on simulated experimental runs predicted the highest MB degradation percentage of 17.12% that can be achieved under optimum process conditions. Meanwhile, experimental photocatalytic degradation of MB using ZnO NRs synthesized under the same optimum condition achieved a degradation percentage of 17.27%, which deviates only 0.88% from the predicted value. This analysis could give an approach to optimize the synthesis process to ensure the good performance of nano-photocatalyst for the photodegradation of organic contaminations in industrial wastewater in a short time and cost-effective process.

Magneto-Transport and Enhanced Spin-Polarized Photo Response in Solution-Processed Vertically Aligned Zn0.9Ni0.1O Nanowires

“…Due to the difference in the size of ionic radii of Ni 2+ and Zn 2+ , a lattice distortion was observed in the Ni-ZnO NWs. Bragg's law and Debye Sherer formula [11,[33][34][35][36] were used to calculate the structural parameters and crystalline size. The crystallite sizes from the FWHM for the 002 peaks were ~61 nm and ~116 nm, respectively, for the ZnO and Ni-ZnO NWs film on a glass substrate.…”

Photocatalytic activity enhancement of nanostructured metal-oxides photocatalyst: a review

“…These factors can influence the rate and selectivity of photocatalytic reactions. Understanding the optimal conditions for a given metal oxide photocatalyst is crucial for maximizing its efficiency in realworld applications [149].…”

Geometrical Characterisation of TiO2-rGO Field-Effect Transistor as a Platform for Biosensing Applications

“…Design of experiments (DOE) and Taguchi method optimisation are proposed for the optimisation of the geometrical structure of the FET to increase the performance of the device. Factorial design is a statistical technique for defining and investigating all possible conditions for multiple factors in an experiment, but a large number of experiments are required for full factorial design [ 22 ]. Therefore, to reduce the number of experiments, orthogonal arrays and fractional factorial experiments were developed to ensure that the DOE techniques would be applicable.…”