Zinc-oxide nanoparticles and their use for photo catalytic degradation of cyanide—a process

摘要

A simple, room-temperature process of using zinc oxide nanoparticles was established by reacting zinc nitrate hexahydrate and cyclohexylamine (CHA) in either aqueous or ethanol medium. Particles of polyhedra morphology were obtained for zinc oxide, prepared in EtOH (ZnO_E) and zinc oxide prepared in water (ZnO_W). The results indicate that there are significant morphological differences between ZnO_E and ZnO_W. ZnO_E showed a regular polyhedral shape, while spherical and chunky particles were observed for ZnO_W. The morphology was crucial in enhancing the cyanide ion photocatalytic degradation efficiency of ZnO_E by a factor of 1.5 in comparison to the efficiency of ZnO_W at equivalent loading of 0.0166 ZnO nanoparticles wt %.