Wet-chemical synthesis of sponge-like porous Zn-doped copper oxide ceramic as an efficient solar-light triggered photocatalyst for multiple applications

Abstract

Abstract This work presents a simple co-precipitation method for making Zn-doped copper oxide (C1−x (Zn) x O) that is nanostructured, porous, active in visible light, and highly conductive. The combined impacts of doping, structural modifications, and nanoscaled synthesis contribute to the development of a novel catalyst that has inherent characteristics. Physicochemical studies confirm the coexistence of all desired features in the C1−x (Zn) x O photocatalyst. The formed photocatalyst’s dye-destroying and antimicrobial properties were carefully examined and compared to those of pristine copper oxide (PCO) that had not been doped. When tested against Escherichia coli (a “negative strain”) and Staphylococcus aureus (a “positive strain”), the antimicrobial properties of the C1−x (Zn) x O photocatalyst were better than those of PCO and on par with those of commercially available drugs. Also, C1−x (Zn) x O photocatalyst gets rid of reactive orange 4 (RO-4) dye more effectively and faster (0.023 min−1) than PCO photocatalyst (0.11 min−1) by using simple sorption and photocatalytic annihilation. The C1−x (Zn) x O photocatalyst eliminated 90.25 % of RO-4 dye under visible light irradiation. Under identical circumstances, the PCO photocatalyst removed 65.12 % of the RO-4 dye. The boosted bactericidal and photocatalytic activity of the C1−x (Zn) x O photocatalyst may be attributed to its larger surface area (56.5 m2 g−1), good electrical conductivity (2.33 × 10−3 S m−1), low bandgap (1.98 eV), and doping-induced structural defects. The developed features increase the light-capturing sites on the catalyst surface, improve the charge transport kinetics, enable the catalysts to harvest visible light, and limit the charge recombination process, allowing our photocatalyst to show exceptional bactericidal and dye annihilation activities. This study opens new avenues for developing metal-substituted metal oxides with porous nanostructures for environmental and ecological protection.