Iranian Journal of

Background and Objective: Owing to the extended usage in the safekeeping of environments, the photocatalytic materials have been widely applied. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the photocatalytic activity of ZnO and SnO₂ nanoparticles in removal of methyl orange from aqueous media.

Materials and Methods: ZnO and SnO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized through sol-gel and chemical precipitation respectively. Methyl orange was selected as model pollutant. The effect of weight fraction on the removal of pollutant was investigated in the range of 0.25, 0.5, and 1 weight percent. Meanwhile, for investigating the effect of radiation time, the suspension containing pollutant and nanoparticles was irradiated. The obtained results were analyzed by MSTATC, Ver 1.42 software and Duncan’s multiple range test.

Results: The analysis of variance results of removal efficiency of methyl orange showed that in the suspension involving ZnO and SnO₂, radiation time, weight fraction and the combined effect of them have a significant effect on the removal of methyl orange at 5% level of probability. Meanwhile, by increasing irradiation time from 5 to 25 min, the removal efficiency in suspensions containing ZnO and SnO₂ reached 97.42 and 65.55% respectively. Investigation on the effect of concentration on the removal of methyl orange shows that the removal of methyl orange increases with respect to the weight fraction.

Conclusion: According to the obtained results, it was observed that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO is higher than that of SnO₂. Therefore, the application of ZnO is more effective for removal of methyl orange from aqueous media.