Soft synthesis of potassium co-doped Al–ZnO nanocomposites: a comprehensive study on their visible-light driven photocatalytic activity on dye degradation

The present work reports on the, first of its kind, synthesis of potassium co-doped aluminum-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) through thermo-sol gelation process. The co-doping of K on Al–ZnO NPs is found having a significant influence on the band gap narrowing of ZnO, to an extent that the entire ligh...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials science 2016-09, Vol.51 (17), p.8187-8208
Main Authors: Thejaswini, T. V. L., Prabhakaran, Deivasigamani, Maheswari, M. Akhila
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum
Catalytic activity
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Classical Mechanics
Crystallography and Scattering Methods
Degradation
Dopants
Dyes
Electromagnetic absorption
Energy gap
Energy levels
Gelation
Luminous intensity
Materials Science
Nanocomposites
Nanoparticles
Original Paper
Photocatalysis
Photocatalysts
Photodegradation
Polymer Sciences
Potassium
Reaction kinetics
Solid Mechanics
Stoichiometry
Synthesis
Zinc oxide
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Summary:The present work reports on the, first of its kind, synthesis of potassium co-doped aluminum-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) through thermo-sol gelation process. The co-doping of K on Al–ZnO NPs is found having a significant influence on the band gap narrowing of ZnO, to an extent that the entire light absorption is shifted towards the visible-light spectrum. The synthesized NPs are characterized using, XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX, UV–Vis–DRS, BET surface area analysis, TG/DTA, PL, and ICP–OES. The band gap energy levels for bare ZnO, Al-doped ZnO, and K co-doped Al–ZnO NPs are 3.26, 3.03 and 2.88 eV, respectively. A systematic study has been carried to evaluate the photocatalytic properties of K co-doped Al–ZnO photocatalyst through Direct Green 6 (a textile dye) degradation studies, and has been compared with well-known Al–ZnO NPs. The effect of various operational parameters such as, co-dopant/dopant stoichiometry, solution pH, catalyst dosage, dye concentration, kinetics, photosensitizers, light intensity, and matrix tolerance, on the dye degradation, has been systematically evaluated. The analytical data reveal that under optimized conditions, the K co-doped Al–ZnO photocatalyst can induce complete dye degradation within 0.5 h under visible light. A comprehensive mechanism has been proposed on the photocatalytic activity of K–Al–ZnO NPs.
ISSN:0022-2461
1573-4803
DOI:10.1007/s10853-016-0095-1