Abstract
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Solar photocatalytic behavior of zinc oxide quantum dots (ZQs) was studied and synthesized using a modified precipitation process and characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. HRTEM was used to demonstrate and verify the purity of the prepared quantum dot material and the calculated crystallite size is 4.4 and 5.3 nm for the ZQ1 and ZQ2 samples, respectively. The optical characteristics and the BET analysis of ZQs samples investigated great value for the bandgap energy and the specific surface for ZQS samples. The photodegradation process of Indigo Carmine dye (IC) (one of the commercial organic hazardous materials used in the dying process) by ZQ1 recorded the highest synthetic levels equal to 17.18 × 10-3S-1. Also, the ZQ1 sample with the smallest particle size reaches the maximum fluorescence rate by almost 31 % in coumarin photo-oxidation than the ZQ2 sample with the largest particle size. This study included a report of the mineralization of IC dye, 16 investigated factory effluents samples, and their recovery ability for ten replication cycles as a case study in the presence of ZQs by sunlight for two months. These evaluation processes are by TOC analysis and COD measurements.