Photo-Degradation of dyes and drugs using aloe vera synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles – A review

Abstract

Environmental pollution due to industries like textile industries, paper and pulp industries, pharmaceutical industries and so on is a major problem which is increasing day by day. Effluents like dyes and drugs releases from industries can be degraded by various methods and out of which photocatalytic degradation using nanoparticles have been reported by different researchers. Different nanoparticles like titanium dioxide, molybdenum oxide, iron oxide, zinc oxide etc can be used in photocatalytic degradation and their synthesis can be done by various methods like chemical, physical and biological. In this review article photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized by green method using aloe vera is reported. Investigations and findings of this work have been highlighted. Zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized using aloe vera were characterized by analytical techniques such as UV–vis spectroscopy which showed maximum absorption of zinc oxide nanoparticles occurs around 350 nm, FTIR shown bands of Zn-O stretching and other groups like CO, CC, CN etc. present in aloe vera, particle size was calculated by SEM, EDX confirmed the elemental composition of nanoparticles and crystalline nature of zinc oxide nanoparticles analyzed by XR.D spectrum. This study also shows the degradation of dyes and drugs by zinc oxide nanoparticles done by researchers like Malachite greencan be degraded in 90 min, basic violet 3 can be degraded in 150 min, Amoxicillin can be degraded in 120 min.