Influence of solvent on the photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanoparticles [Influence du solvant sur l'activité photo-catalytique des nanoparticules de ZnO]

This work aims to study the effectiveness of the photocatalytic process for treating contaminated waste water with organic pollutants and minerals. in our case,this technique is applied to a pigment called alizarin which is likely to be found in waste water from the textile industry. photodegradation is by using zno nanoparticles synthesized by the polyol method in the presence of two differents solvents: ethylene glycol and 2-ethoxyethanol. this process allows us to control the size and morphology of nanoparticles. the efficiency of the photocatalyst was evaluated by studying the various parameters influencing the performance degradation: adsorption at dark and under uv,photolysis and the kinetics of degradation. zno characterization was performed by xrd,ftir,tem and edx. the zno prepared via polyol method using 2-ethoxyethanol as the solvent showed highest photocatalytic activity.