Investigating the Effect of the Complexing Agents Monoethanolamine and Oxalic Acid on the Properties and Photocatalytic Performance of Zinc Oxide in the Rapid Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction and Objectives: Zinc oxide (ZnO) is considered as a promising material due to its efficient light absorption and high performance in the degradation of organic pollutants. However, it faces limitations such as poor visible light absorption and rapid charge carrier recombination. To overcome these challenges, approaches such as doping and heterojunction formation have been investigated to enhance its photocatalytic performance. In this study, the effect of oxalic acid and monoethanolamine (MEA) as complexing agents on the photocatalytic properties of ZnO was examined.
Materials and Methods: In this study, zinc oxide was synthesized by the sol–gel method, and the effect of oxalic acid and monoethanolamine as two complexing agents on its photocatalytic properties was investigated.
Results: scanning electron microscope images showed that the ZnO-MEA sample exhibited a more uniform particle distribution and smoother surface compared to ZnO-Oxalic. Fourier transform infrared analysis revealed the presence of more surface functional groups in the ZnO-MEA sample, attributed to residual monoethanolamine. UV-Vis spectroscopy and Tauc plots indicated that ZnO-MEA had a lower band gap energy (3.08 eV) than ZnO-Oxalic (3.18 eV), which is attributed to larger particle size and fewer structural defects.
Conclusion: In this study, ZnO-MEA with a crystallite size of 42 nm (as opposed to 35 nm for ZnO-Oxalic) and uniform structure was synthesized. Its energy gap was lower than ZnO-Oxalic, resulting in better light absorption. Moreover, the lower Photoluminescence spectroscopy intensity in ZnO-MEA indicated less electron–hole recombination. These factors led ZnO-MEA, in the methylene blue degradation test, to exhibit better photocatalytic performance than ZnO-Oxalic, with a faster decrease in dye concentration and a steeper slope in the plot.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Advanced Materials in Engineering
Volume 45, Issue 1
March 2026
Pages 79-92

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