Synthesis and characterization of ZnO Nanoparticles using Cd and Sn as dopants and for photocatalytic degradation of Eosin yellow and Direct blue15 under UV light irradiation

Abstract

Abstract In the present report, the facile co-precipitation technique was used to synthesis undoped ZnO NPs, Cd-doped and Sn-doped ZnO NPs. The XRD patterns shows that the all-synthesized samples were confirmed the hexagonal crystal structure of ZnO NPs, which reveals that, there were no impurities in the doped materials. The FT-IR studies confirms the phase formation of ZnO and also shows the confirms the functional groups present in the synthesized samples. From UV-DRS, the band gap of pure ZnO NPs is decreased from 3.38 eV to 3.21 eV by adding the dopant Cd. Whereas, the addition of Sn decreases the band gap to 3.30 eV. From PL spectrum, the near band emission (393 nm) and blue emission (451 and 468 nm) were observed. SEM images show the considerable change in morphology from the flakes like morphologies to non-uniform surface of nanostructured morphology and homogonous spherical shaped nanostructured morphology when Cd and Sn are added as dopants. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO NPs, Cd-doped and Sn-doped ZnO NPs were analysed by the degradation of Eosin Yellow (EY) and Direct Blue 15 (DB-15) under UV light irradiation. The prepared Cd-doped ZnO NPs shows a high photocatalytic activity compared with pure ZnO NPs and Sn-doped ZnO NPs. The result revealed that, as-prepared Cd-doped ZnO NPs found to have efficient degradation candidate materials.