Synthesis and characterization of nanoparticulate zinc oxide: Preparation via sol-gel method and applications as a catalyst in the ciprofloxacin hydrochloride degradation

Abstract

The present work reports the synthesis by the sol-gel method of nanoparticulate ZnO (nZnO) and evaluates its activity against commercial ZnO (cZnO) as a photocatalyst in the degradation of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CIP) in aqueous solution. The characterization of the nZnO was performed by DRX, MEV, MET and FTIR. The photodegradation experiments were organized according to 23 experimental design and the influence of the parameters [ZnO], [H2O2] and pH were evaluated statistically. The experimental results showed that the best conditions for the photodegradation process, [H2O2] = 500 mg L-1 and [ZnO] = 20 mg L-1 at pH 4, were identical for both photocatalysts, and nZnO activity was 6% higher than cZnO activity. The small difference observed in the activity of nZnO relative to cZnO can be attributed to the morphological heterogeneity of the nZnO obtained synthetically.