Facile Synthesis of Fe/ZnO Hollow Spheres Nanostructures by Green Approach for the Photodegradation and Removal of Organic Dye Contaminants in Water

In this research, a facile and clean sonochemical synthesis was described for Fe/ZnO hollow spheres nanostructures as high-efficiency UV-Vis light photocatalyst through an environmentally-friendly procedure. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) were utilized for the investigation of the produced Fe/ZnO hollow spheres nanostructures. Then, the photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were evaluated on the degradation of Methylene Blue and Congo Red in an aqueous solution under both UV and visible light irradiation (λ > 420 nm). Also, to illustrate the influence of morphologies on the degradation of these organic dyes, the Fe/ZnO nanostructures with the wood-like, flower-like, rod-like, and nanoparticle morphologies were synthesized and the photocatalyst efficiency of them was determined. The results confirmed that the Fe/ZnO hollow spheres have significant photocatalytic activity compared to other morphologies and could be used as outstanding potential photocatalyst materials for removing dye pollutants from water.