Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye using F doped ZnO/polyvinyl alcohol nanocomposites

The photocatalytic activity of fluorine-doped zinc oxide (ZnO-F) nanoparticles (NPs) is improved with the assistance of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). ZnO-F NPs were synthesized through a co-precipitation reaction of zinc nitrate and ammonium fluoride. The obtained ZnO-F NPs were capped with various amounts of PVA, utilizing a facile solution-based approach. XRD patterns showed that PVA polymer didn't alter the crystallinity properties of ZnO NPs and its hexagonal wurtzite structure with prominent orientations of (100), (002), and (101) was preserved. While UV-Vis spectra revealed that the optical band of nanocomposites varies with increasing amounts of PVA from 2.10 eV for ZnO-F NPs to 2.13 eV for 4% PVA loaded-ZnO-F. The data showed when the weight ratio of PVA polymer with respect to the neat ZnO NPs is fixed at 4% during the synthesis process, the highest photocatalytic activity for hybrid NPs is achieved.