Synthesis and investigation of pure and doped-ZnO nanoparticles as efficient material for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue under solar radiations

• Published in: Indian journal of physics 2024-06, Vol.98 (7), p.2285-2297
• Main Authors: Azad, Seema, Chand, Subhash
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Crystallites; Energy gap; Fourier transforms; Magnesium; Methylene blue; Nanoparticles; Optical properties; Original Paper; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Sol-gel processes; Water purification; Wurtzite; X-ray diffraction; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 0973-1458; 0974-9845
• DOI: 10.1007/s12648-023-02995-3

In the present scenario, the growing demand of photocatalytic degradation of harmful organic pollutants has attracted much attention. In this context, the pure and doped-ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using sol–gel method and effect of Mg, Al, Ga–Mg and Al–Mg doping on structural, morphological, optical and photocatalytic degradation properties of nanoparticles under solar radiations were investigated using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infra-red and UV–visible spectroscopy, respectively. The X-ray diffraction results shows wurtzite structure as dominating phase in these nanoparticles. It has been observed that average crystallite size calculated using Debye Scherrer’s formula was found to decreases from 41.96 to 27.97 nm for Zn 0.96 Al 0.04 O nanoparticles. The microstructures of these nanoparticles show crystalline spherical shaped grains. The UV–visible study shows blue shift of optical band gap energy of Mg and Al-doped-ZnO nanoparticles, whereas the optical band narrowing effect has been observed in Ga and Al-doped Zn 0.97 Mg 0.03 O nanoparticles. The absorbance study shows photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue by these nanoparticles. The photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue under solar radiations by Mg and Al-doped nanoparticles was found up to 85.6% and 86.65% with very high degradation rate constant of 0.07285 and 0.08911, respectively. So, the high degradation rate of Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles in sun light makes it suitable material in environmental remediation applications, especially for waste water purification processes.