UV assisted synthesis of folic acid functionalized ZnO–Ag hexagonal nanoprisms for efficient catalytic reduction of Cr+6 and 4-nitrophenol

Abstract

Chemical-based syntheses of metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) has become a major topic of research exploration in the field of nanotechnology. The utilization of folic acid (FA) as stabilizing and capping agent has been reported as a novel route for the synthesis of bimetallic nanomaterials. The present study includes novel research and brief discussion about preparation of UV light assisted ZnO–Ag nanobars (NBs) using FA as stabilizing agent and its catalytic applications on the reduction of organic pollutants (4-NP and Cr+6) using NBs as a catalyst alongwith ascorbic acid (AA). Analytical techniques including UV–visible spectroscopy, XRD, SEM, EDX and FT-IR were used for the characterizing synthesized ZnO–Ag NBs. Hexagonal structure of ZnO–Ag NBs were found having crystallite size 5.6 nm and SEM studies revealed the nanobar width 33.2 nm and length 133.5 nm. The prepared ZnO–Ag NBs were tested for their catalytic activity for the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and Cr+6. In the presence of ZnO–Ag NBs and AA, an effective reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) and Cr+6 was achieved up to 93% and 90% in 17 and 26 min with respectively. The successful and efficient catalytic activity of NBs may be attributed to the size of NBs or the concentration of FA employed for synthesis.