Synthesis and Ag Recovery of Nanosized ZnO Powder by Solution Combustion Process for Photocatalytic Applications

Nanometer-sized ZnO powders for photocatalytic applications were prepared by a solution combustion method with various starting materials and fuels. It was easy to obtain single-phase ZnO powders using the solution combustion method regardless of the starting materials and fuels. However, the particle size and shape of the synthesized ZnO powders were different than the used fuel. Using glycine as a fuel, the particle shape of ZnO powders was spherical with uniform nanosize. On the other hand, using carbohydrazide as a fuel, the particle shape was platelike. The ZnO powder synthesized using Zn(OH)2 and glycine as starting material and fuel, respectively, showed good powder characteristics, such as average grain size of 75 nm and the specific surface area of 94 m2/g. The average particle size and specific surface area were greatly dependent on the types of oxidants and fuels. Removal of silver ions from a used photo-film developing solution was attempted to examine the photocatalytic activity of the prepared ZnO powders. It also showed excellent photocatalytic properties in that the silver ions were completely removed from the solution within 3 min.