Doping with Chemically Hard Elements to Improve Photocatalytic Properties of ZnO Nanostructures

Here we report improved photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructures through judicious choice of the dopant, particularly by choosing the dopant with high chemical hardness. We have doped ZnO nanostructures with divalent (Ni 2+ and Sr 2+ ) and trivalent (Cr 3+ and Al 3+ ) using hydrothermal conditi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cluster science 2022-09, Vol.33 (5), p.1943-1950
Main Authors: Kotha, Vishal, Kumar, Kuldeep, Dayman, Pawan, Panchakarla, Leela S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adsorption
Catalysis
Catalytic activity
Chemistry
Chemistry and Materials Science
Degradation
Dopants
Dyes
Electron microscopes
Hardness
Inorganic Chemistry
Methylene blue
Morphology
Nanochemistry
Nanoparticles
Nanostructure
Nitrates
Original Paper
Photocatalysis
Physical Chemistry
Pollutants
Radiation
Scanning electron microscopy
Spectrum analysis
Trivalent chromium
Ultraviolet radiation
Zinc oxide
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Summary:Here we report improved photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanostructures through judicious choice of the dopant, particularly by choosing the dopant with high chemical hardness. We have doped ZnO nanostructures with divalent (Ni 2+ and Sr 2+ ) and trivalent (Cr 3+ and Al 3+ ) using hydrothermal conditions. The photocatalytic activity of undoped and doped ZnO nanostructures was tested towards the degradation of methyl orange (MO), methylene blue (MB), and congo red (CR). The Al-ZnO exhibited a 91.25% removal rate compared to 40.88% for pure ZnO in MO degradation under ultraviolet (UV) radiation. The trend of photocatalytic activity of different photocatalysts (Al-ZnO > Sr-ZnO > Cr-ZnO > Ni-ZnO > ZnO) is similar to the trend of Pearson hardness values of Al 3+  > Sr 2+  > Cr 3+  > Ni 2+  > Zn 2+ . These reactions also reveal that the dopant type affects the morphology of the ZnO nanostructures in given reaction conditions. We propose the polarity-induced mechanism to understand the changes in the morphology due to different dopants.
ISSN:1040-7278
1572-8862
DOI:10.1007/s10876-021-02115-3