Abstract
The present work provides an eco friendly rout to synthesize erbium and ytterbium co-doped ZnO (EYZO) photocatalysts by combustion method followed by calcinations at 700 °C for 3 h and then characterized by different techniques (XRD, EDS, SEM, XPS, FTIR, UV–Vis DRS, PL, CV and BET surface area). XRD confirm the formation of hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO. Further, doping of Er and Yb in to ZnO lattice was evidenced by shift of XRD planes towards lower 2θ values. The addition of Er and Yb introduces significant changes in light absorption characteristics with important absorbance in visible region due to Er and Yb role as acceptor to increase charge separation. UV–Vis DRS shows red shift of ZnO band gap from 3.23 eV to 3.16 eV due to Er and Dy doping. All synthesized photocatalysts were tested in photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange (MO) under visible light irradiation. It was observed an increase of photocatalytic MO degradation under visible light irradiation with enhance of Er and Yb co-doping content for ZnO. In particular, EYZO with maximum Er and Yb content allowed obtaining the almost complete MO degradation only in 90 min under visible light irradiation. In addition, the impact of various operational factors on the photo-degradation of MO was studied and explained. Moreover, a feasible catalytic process for photo-degradation of MO over EYZO photocatalysts is suggested and participation of hydroxyl radicals as reactive species is explained by radical trapping analysis.
Published Version
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