Effect of Copper Substitution, Calcination Temperature, and Photo-sensitizers on Photocatalytic Activity of Cu0.05 Zn0.95O

Abstract

A successful series of CuxZn1-xO (variable x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2) were characterized by thermogravimetric (TG-DTA), Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy, and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques. The photocatalytic activity of prepared samples was accurately assessed by the photocatalytic decomposition of LASER dye in an aqueous solution under irradiation of solar light and was compared favourably to non-dope commercially available ZnO photo-catalyst. The effect of various parameters like the amount of a catalyst, the calcination temperature on photocatalytic activity is also studied. The direct effect of various photosensitizing salts like NaCl, Na2CO3, and Na2S2O3 on photocatalytic activity of ZnO and Cu0.05Zn0.95O was carefully studied.