Abstract
Mono/bimetals and their oxides are of significance as potential catalyst for various applications. Herein, we report the mono (Cu, Ni) and bimetal (Cu75Ni25) decorated zinc oxide (Cu75Ni25@ZnO) nanoparticles synthesised by hydrothermal method and their structural modifications upon partial or complete oxidation by thermal treatment at 400 °C and 600 °C. XRD and Raman spectroscopic analysis confirmed the presence of metal in as prepared condition while copper and nickel formed the corresponding oxides at 400 °C and 600 °C, respectively. A similar band gap energy was observed due to the presence of nanoparticles on the surface ZnO even after heat treatment. Among all the samples, Cu75Ni25@ZnO heat treated at 400 °C (Cu75Ni25@ZnO-400) showed the best photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under the sunlight with a rate constant of about 0.502 min−1 and conversion efficiency of 98% in 40 min. A time-resolved photoluminescence study showed a higher lifetime value of 38.12 ns for Cu75Ni25@ZnO-400 for electron-hole recombination. Compared to mono noble metals like Pt, Au, Ag etc., loaded over semiconductor, Cu75Ni25@ZnO-400 showed five times faster degradation of MB under sunlight. This study shows the of the efficiency of cost-effective bimetallic over mono/noble metal decorated ZnO towards sunlight assisted photocatalysis.
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