Rapid Synthesis of PbO-NPs Photocatalysts, Investigation of Methylene Blue Degradation Kinetics

Abstract

The study focused on the green synthesis of lead oxide nanoparticles (PbO-NPs) using green tea extract and its use for photocatalytic degradation. The effect of experimental conditions such as green tea extract concentrations and reaction temperatures on the structure and size of PbO-NPs has been investigated. Reaction temperatures of 25, 50 and 85 ℃ and green tea extract concentrations of 5, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 100 mg/mL were used for preparing of PbO-NPs. Amount of the phenolic acid contained in the green tea extracts was determined according to the Folin-Cioceltau method. The synthesized PbO-NPs were further confirmed by UV–visible Spectroscopy, Fourier Infrared Transformation Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive (EDX) analysis. Tetragonal and orthorhombic morphology of PbO-NPs were observed in SEM images. While the crystallite structure of the PbO-NPs was obtained for the samples prepared using 5 and 10 mg/mL extract concentration for all reaction temperatures, the amorphous structures of PbO-NPs were seen for the samples prepared using extract concentrations of 20, 40, 80 and 100 mg/mL. Finally, PbO-NPs catalyst was tested for the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV light. The effect of dye concentration, catalyst amount and pH on degradation were investigated. By determining suitable experimental conditions, MB degradation reached 89% with PbO-NPs in 60 minutes. The reaction kinetics of MB removal from aqueous solution under UV lamp and in the dark media were compared for first-order and second-order reaction kinetics.