Abstract
Employing plant extracts to obtain nanomaterials is an ecofriendly and highly appreciated synthetic approach. In this work a simple, green chemistry method, based on sol–gel, was used for ZnO nanoparticles synthesis by using two Sudanese medicinal plant extracts:
(ZnO-A) and
(ZnO-B) under ultrasonic energy. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed the formation of wurtzite hexagonal ZnO nanostructures, while the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis displayed their diverse morphologies. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data showed the impact of extract via the variation in of the O1s and Zn2p
and Zn2p
orbitals binding energy of Zn–O. The UV-visible investigation indicated a variation of bandgap energy (
), where the ZnO nanoparticles displayed the lowest
. The synthesized nanomaterials have exhibited high photocatalytic efficiency towards the methylene blue (MB) dye. The findings revealed the possibility of obtaining nanoparticles with tailored properties by using plants extracts.