Photocatalytic degradation of Eriochrome Black T dye using well-crystalline anatase TiO2 nanoparticles

•Facile growth, characterization and photocatalytic application of TiO2 nanoparticles.•82% degradation of Eriochrome Black T (EBT) dye in 90 min using TiO2 nanoparticle.•Superior degradation compared to commercially available catalysts(PC-50,PC-500, ZnO). Well-crystalline anatase TiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by facile solution process and characterized in terms of their morphological, structural, optical and photocatalytic properties. The detailed studies confirmed that the as-synthesized nanoparticles are well-crystalline, grown in high density and exhibiting good optical properties. For photocatalytic degradation, Eriochrome Black T (EBT) dye was used as a model compound and about 82% of photo-degradation of EBT dye was achieved in 90min under UV light irradiation. The kinetic studies revealed that EBT photo-degradation follows pseudo-first order reaction kinetics and rate constant was found to be 0.017min−1. In addition to this, by comparing the photocatalytic performance with other commercially available catalysts (PC-50, PC-500, commercial ZnO), it was observed that the as-synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles exhibited superior photocatalytic performance.