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Green synthesis of ZnO-NPs from prickly pear peels extract and their methylene blue degradation activities

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Abstract

Bionanotechnology is a promising field for the preparation of nano-sized substances in an environmentally safe manner. This study presents the facile preparation of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) from prickly pear peels extract by a green chemistry method. Rietveld structural refinement of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern approved the creation of the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO-NPs. The prepared nanoparticles were also identified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis to check up the chemical states and purity. The peak of optical absorption of the nanoparticle has been observed at 370 nm. The band gap energy of ZnO-NPs is 3.2 eV. The morphology of the nanoparticles is spherical with a particle size of around  10–30 nm and the interplanar lattice spacing is  0.29 nm. ZnO-NPs were found to be a potential candidate for the photodegradation of Methylene Blue (MB, one of the organic dyes) leading to 85% efficiency as for its oxidative degradation when using hydrogen peroxide in aqueous medium (88% efficiency). Similarly, it shows significant photocatalytic activity with solar energy in less than 20 min compared to MB elimination when H2O2 is used. The nanoparticles have shown a considerable catalytic performance and present the advantage of being easily separated from the treatment medium, since they remain stable after the catalytic process.

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank MINECO (MAT2017-84118-C2-2-R project) and UCM CAI center of Electron Microscopy for facilities.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Interfacial and Advanced Materials, Faculty of Sciences (FSM), University of Monastir, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Abdessalem Badri

  2. Department of Chemistry, Preparatory Institute for Engineering Studies of Monastir (IPEIM), University of Monastir, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Abdessalem Badri

  3. Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Inmaculada Alvarez-Serrano

  4. Laboratory of Asymmetric Synthesis and Molecular Engineering of Organic Materials for Electronic Organics (LR18ES19), Faculty of Sciences, University of Monastir, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Faouzi Aloui

  5. Textile Materials and Research Unit (ENIM), University of Monastir, 5000, Monastir, Tunisia

    Mahjoub Jabli

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors contributed to material preparation, data collection and analysis. AB wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Abdessalem Badri.

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Badri, A., Alvarez-Serrano, I., Aloui, F. et al. Green synthesis of ZnO-NPs from prickly pear peels extract and their methylene blue degradation activities. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 1503 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-10917-6

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