ZnO nanoparticles – Synthesis, characterization and its application for phenol removal from synthetic and pharmaceutical industry wastewater

Abstract

Synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles was carried out by wet chemical method. The characteristics of synthesized ZnO nano particles were studies in terms of its structural, morphological properties by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and particle size distribution. The synthesized ZnO nano particles were employed for the removal of phenol from synthetic and industrial wastewater. In this work, the influence of initial pH, ZnO dosage, contact time, phenol initial concentration on percentage removal of phenol was investigated. Langmuir, Freundlich, Tempkin isotherms were employed for the sorption data. Kinetic studies were also performed using pseudo first order and Pseudo second order model. Results indicates that Langmuir isotherm fits the phenol removal data well when compared with other isotherms. From the kinetic studies it was also inferred that the sorption follows Pseudo first order. A comparison has been made for the removal of phenol from industrial and synthetic wastewater using synthesized ZnO nanoparticles.