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%.