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 (1 0 0), (0 0 2), and (1 0 1) 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.