Enhanced photocatalytic organic dye degradation activities of pristine and Zn-doped V2O5 nanoparticles

Abstract

This research work presents the photocatalytic activities of pristine and Zn-doped V2O5 nanoparticles for the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB), Methyl Violet (MV), and Malachite Green (MG) dyes. The nanoparticles of V2O5 pure and Zn with different atomic ratios (1–5 at%) were prepared by sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirm the orthorhombic phase. X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirms the presence of V, O, and Zn elements along with their oxidation states. Further, decreased photoluminescence (PL) intensity spectra confirm the reduced recombination rate. Band structure analysis were studied with valance band XPS (VB-XPS), Mott-Schottky (M−S) curves, and Kubelka-Munk (K-M). The Time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies showed that the charge carrier life time was increased and charge transfer resistance was lowered with increasing Zn concentration. The photocatalytic studies show excellent degradation efficiencies against MB, MV, and MG dyes. The results from the present work show the degradation time decreases as the Zn concentration increases. The reusability test was performed and the dye degradation (DD) mechanism with their kinetics are discussed in detail with the radical test. The consistency of the samples were tested by taking XRD, FTIR and BET analysis after three trials of usage.