Synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using Sapindus rarak DC fruit pericarp extract for rhodamine B photodegradation

Abstract

Zinc oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were successfully synthesized via a green synthesis route by using Sapindus rarak DC fruit aqueous extract (SFE). In addition, a comparative evaluation of ZnO NPs synthesis was conducted using isolated saponins (SN) obtained from SFE. This was performed to observe the role of saponins in the synthesis of ZnO NPs as they could act as a capping agent as well as control the morphology and size of the particles. In this work, various concentrations of ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) were used in the ZnO NPs synthesis with the presence of SN. This was conducted with the aim to understand the effects of hydroxide ions addition to the resulted products of the synthesis. The samples were characterized using XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), UV–vis DRS (UV–vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy), and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy). The results show that the ZnO NPs with smaller and more faceted particles were obtained for those synthesized using SFE as compared with the ones synthesized using SN and with the addition of NH4OH. The ZnO NPs synthesized using SFE exhibited the best performance photocatalyst for the degradation of Rhodamine B up to 99.7% with 120 min of reaction time.