Microwave assisted facile synthesis of 3D flower-like ZnO nanostructures for enhanced photocatalytic degradation/removal of Eosin Y from water

Three-dimensional ZnO nanoflower has been synthesized via microwave irradiation technique using glycine as complexing/capping agent for the first time. TEM, SAED, XRD, FTIR, UV and PL spectra have been recorded to characterize the synthesized ZnO nanostructures. The TEM image indicates the formation of 3D flower-like ZnO nanostructures having diameter similar to 0.74-1.60 mu m. The spacing between adjacent lattice fringes obtained from the HRTEM image is 0.145 nm which indicated the presence of (103) lattice plane of ZnO. The synthesized ZnO nanoflower show excellent luminescence properties. The photocatalytic properties of synthesized ZnO nanoflower is depicted by the degradation of Eosin Y dye under solar irradiation. It is found that 98.9% of Eosin Y dye is degraded within 50 min under solar irradiation. Henceforth, ZnO nanoflower acts as an effective photocatalyst for the degradation of Eosin Y dye.