Facile synthesis of Sm doped ZnO nanoflowers by Co-precipitation method for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of MB dye under sunlight irradiation

Abstract

Rare earth (RE) metal doping into the metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) is considered an effective way to boost photocatalytic performance for its capability to decelerate the electron-hole pair recombination upon excitation. In the current work, Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoflowers were synthesized via facile co-precipitation method with varying concentrations of samarium (Sm) ions. Several techniques were used to analyze the structural, morphological, optical, and elemental composition properties of the prepared photocatalyst. FE-SEM studies revealed the nanoflower-like morphology, whereas the structural properties confirm the wurtzite crystal structure of ZnO which is identified by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. Additionally, the observed shift in XRD planes toward lower theta values justifies the incorporation of Sm3+ ions into the Zinc Oxide lattice. The photo induced activity of Sm doped ZnO nanoflowers was studied by the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under sunlight irradiation, especially 5% Sm-ZnO shows the highest degradation efficiency with 96% within 90 min. The photocatalytic degradation mechanism and scavenger test towards MB using Sm doped ZnO NFs have also been discussed.