Photocatalytic properties of biosynthesized ZnS nanoparticles using Acalypha indica plant extract

Abstract

To develop a efficient biocatalyst, a simple and environmentally friendly biosynthesized approach has been utilized. In this study, we synthesized ZnS nanoparticle for the first time using an environmentally friendly synthetic approach based on extract from Acalypha indica plant. The influence of plant extract on the crystal structure, surface morphology, and elemental composition, optical property of biosynthesized ZnS catalyst was investigated. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of pure and biosynthesized ZnS nanoparticles for methylene blue dye degradation (MBD) were examined. The results reveals that Acalypha indica plant extract mediated ZnS (A:ZnS) nanoparticles exhibits excellent photo degradation efficiency (99%) when compared to pure ZnS. This suggest that the narrower band gap energy, improved crystalline size of biosynthesized ZnS nanoparticles exhibits increased dye degradation efficiency than pure ZnS.