Synthesis and characterization of zinc-imidazolate coordination polymer and its use for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye under visible light irradiation

Abstract Zinc-Imidazole coordination polymer (Zn-Im CP) was facilely synthesized by hydrothermal method from zinc acetate and imidazole as ligand. The structure of the synthesized Zn-Im CP was analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX, FTIR, and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Surface area of Zn-Im CP was determined by BET analysis of N2 adsorption. The photocatalytic performance of Zn-Im CP using visible light irradiation source was investigated using UV–Vis spectrophotometer for the degradation of methylene blue. The pseudo first order reaction kinetic model was applied on the degradation data which gave the rate constant of 0.006 min−1. The results indicate that Zn-Im CP exhibits good photocatalytic performance for the photodegradation of methylene blue following indirect mechanism pathway.