Synthesis of new Zn (II) complexes for photo decomposition of organic dye pollutants, industrial wastewater and photo-oxidation of methyl arenes under visible-light

Abstract Synthesis of new Schiff’s base Zn-complexes for photo-oxidation of methyl arenes and xylenes are reported under visible light irradiation conditions. All the synthesized new ligands and Zn-complexes are thoroughly characterized with various spectral analyses and confirmed as 1:1 ratio of Zn and ligand with distorted octahedral structure. The bandgap energies of the ligands are higher than its Zn-complexes. These synthesized new Zn(II) complexes are used for the photo-fragmentation of organic dye pollutants, photodegradation of food industrial wastewater and oxidation of methyl arenes which are converted into its respective aldehydes with moderate yields under visible light irradiation. The photooxidation reaction dependency on the intensity of the visible light was also studied. With the increase in the dosage of photocatalyst, the methyl groups are oxidized to get aldehydes and mono acid products, which are also identified from LC-MS data. Finally, [Zn(PPMHT)Cl] is with better efficiency than [Zn(PTHMT)Cl] and [Zn(MIMHPT)Cl] for oxidation of methyl arenes is reported under visible-light-driven conditions.