Photocatalysis of methylene blue by ZnO nanoparticles produced by green synthesis

In this study, ZnO nanoparticles with a size of 192 nm were produced <i>via</i> green synthesis using <i>Diospyros kaki</i> L. peel extract and were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Visible spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), and zeta potential (ZP) analysis. The produced nanoparticles were tested for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue and optimized using the Box-Behnken design. Under optimum conditions (pH: 10, dye concentration: 10 ppm and catalyst amount: 0.13 g and pH: 7, dye concentration: 10 ppm and catalyst amount: 0.6 g), 100% dye removal was achieved in 270 min and the model was validated by ANOVA. This study represents the first investigation involving the production and photocatalytic application of nanoparticles synthesized using <i>D. kaki</i> peel.