Facile synthesis of hollow ZnS nanospheres for environmental remediation

Abstract

This paper reports the successful synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic degradation applications of hollow ZnS nanospheres prepared by facile hydrothermal process. The detailed structural and morphological properties revealed that the prepared nanospheres are well-crystalline and grown in very high density. The prepared nanospheres were utilized as efficient photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of three harmful and toxic dyes, i.e. methyl orange(MO), eosin red and methylene blue(MB) which exhibited excellent photocatalytic degradation in the order of MO (65%)<MB (74%)<eosin red (93%). It was interesting to observe that through five cycles of repeated degradation experiments, the prepared ZnS nanospheres maintain good photocatalytic degradation rate which revealed that the prepared nanospheres are excellent photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of toxic dyes and chemicals.