Induced defect and ZnO nano-flower formation by N, N, dimethylformamide solvent for natural sunlight responsive...

The increasing disposal of dyes and face-mask propel to hunt for a solution to fight water pollution while assisting sustainability. This research overcomes the key challenges associated with implementing photocatalytic water treatment by using natural sunlight active photocatalyst, changing slurry system, eliminating the use of external triggering sources, and reusing face-mask fabric coated with ZnO to act as a floating photocatalyst. Unique morphological structures-cauliflower, hydrangea, and petals-likes are obtained with the variation in synthesis medium (Diethylene glycol (DEG), N, N-dimethyl formamide (DMF), H₂O) and methods (precipitation, solvothermal) which are found to be dependent on the solvent properties. With the use of DMF having a higher dielectric constant and formation of dimethyl amine via hydrolysis, it influences in forming petals and flower-like morphologies, unlike DEG solvent. The ZnO-coated face-mask fabric is used as the floating photocatalyst under natural sunlight observing comparable 91% degradation efficiency in 100 min with that of 99% efficiency in the UV light-illuminated slurry system. The formation of petals-like structures, defects from the liberation of DMF molecules from the ZnO surface by calcination, larger pore sizes and pore volumes provided a synergistic effect on enhancing the degradation efficiency in these cases.