Sonochemical Analysis of Methylene Blue with Additives and ZnO Nanoparticles in Aqueous Medium

Abstract

The use of ultrasound was found to be a very suitable and effective method for the degradation of hazardous dyestuffs. The degradation of dye molecules in aqueous media in the presence of various additives by ultrasonic irradiation was investigated in order to clarify the degradation mechanism. In this investigation, Methylene Blue (MB) has been used as a representative of azo dye and inorganic salts like NaCl and Na2SO4 were used as additives. Besides degradation in presence of CCl4 and H2O2 solutions were observed. ZnO nanoparticle was also used for the investigation of degradation. The volume of all solutions was 100ml containing 25mg/L of MB. The sonication of dye molecules were conducted for 0, 5, 15, 25 minutes. The degradation mechanism was discussed in details adopting UV- visible spectra. From the experiments it is clear that the acidic condition is favorable for dye degradation. Evaluating the results we have also found that all additives aided the degradation comparatively higher or lower the extent depending on their used amount in solution. So, it is a clear indication that azo dyes from waste water can be efficiently removed by using sonochemical irradiation method under acidic condition