Hydrothermal preparation of Zn-doped In2O3 nanostructure and its microstructural, optical, magnetic, photocatalytic and dielectric behaviour

Abstract

In this communication, indium oxide (In2O3) and Zn-doped In2O3 nanoparticles with different zinc percentage (0–5%) have been prepared by a facile chemical process. A variety of analytical tools such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–Visible, photoluminescence spectroscopy, photocatalytic measurements and impedance spectroscopy were employed to assess the characteristics of prepared nanoparticles (NPs). From XRD analysis it is observed that all samples exhibit pure cubic phase with highly crystalline nature. XPS spectra revealed the composition and chemical state of Zn-doped In2O3 NPs. The estimated optical band gap was found to decrease with increase of Zn concentration. Magnetic hysteresis exhibited that pure and Zn-doped In2O3 NPs possess ferromagnetic behavior at room temperature. Dielectric constant (ε ’) as well as dielectric loss (ε ’’) decreases exponentially in lower frequency range, but remains almost constant in higher frequency range. Moreover, Zn(5%)-doped In2O3 nanoparticles showed much higher photocatalytic activity as compared with pure In2O3 nanoparticles towards degradation of hazardous methylene blue dye. The results of present study demonstrated that synthesized nanoparticles may be employed efficiently as environmentally convenient photocatalyst for industrial effluent treatment.