COMPARISON STUDY OF PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF METHYLENE BLUE AND RHODAMINE B WITH ZnO NANORODS PREPARED BY USING THE HYDROTHERMAL METHOD

Abstract

In this study, ZnO nanorods were fabricated by hydrothermal method at temperatures of 100, 120, 140 and 160 ^oC. ZnO nanorods have diameters from 50 nm to 100 nm and lengths up to several µm with the typical hexagonal structure of ZnO material with (100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103), (200), (112), (004), (201), and (202) lattice planes. The positions of the peaks are almost unchanged with different hydrothermal temperatures. The Raman scattering analysis shown characteristic vibration modes of ZnO material at 100 cm^-1, 200 cm^-1, 331 cm^-1, 378 cm^-1 and 436 cm⁻¹ related to A₁, E₂ energy levels. UV-vis results show that the material absorbs strongly in the near ultraviolet band at 374 nm and gives characteristic emission of ZnO at 401 and 455 nm. The decomposition process of Methylene blue (MB) and Rhodamine B (RhB) for ZnO nanorod samples was studied under the visible light. The results shown that the synthesized ZnO material has the ability to decompose MB up to 94.96% and RhB up to 17.82 % after 120 minutes of illumination.