A Novel Green Synthesis of Zinc Sulfide Nano-Adsorbents Using Artemisia Herba Alba Plant Extract for Adsorption and Photocatalysis of Methylene Blue Dye

We report a facile and green route for a new synthesis of sulfide nanoparticles (ZnS NPs) using Artemisia Herba Alba (AHA) plant extract for efficient adsorption/photodegradation of methylene blue dye (MB). Results exhibited a blue shift in the absorbance band and higher energy band gap values than bulk ZnS materials, which was due to the quantum confinement effect. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of the cubic phase of ZnS-AHA nanocrystals with a calculated average size of 4 nm. Green synthesized ZnS NPs show enhanced adsorption efficiency toward MB from contaminated water. ZnS-AHA NPs showed a specific surface area of 36.82 cm 2 g −1 and an adsorption capacity of 31.17 mg g −1 for MB. The Langmuir–Freundlich model modeled adsorption data. The photocatalytic degradation performance of the green nanoparticles under sunlight irradiation showed a remarkable dye degradation rate of 94.09% in 180 min. In summary, this eco-friendly NPs is a highly promising material to be used in wastewater treatment for the removal of organic compounds.