Low Temperature Aqueous Chemical Growth Method for the Doping of W into ZnO Nanostructures and Their Photocatalytic Role in the Degradration of Methylene Blue

Abstract

In this research work, we have produced tungsten (W) doped ZnO nanostructures via low-temperature aqueous chemical growth method. The morphology, crystal arrays and composition was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive X-rays (EDX) respectively. The SEM results indicate the nanowire morphology before and after the doping of W into ZnO and XRD study has shown the hexagonal crystallography of W doped ZnO samples. The EDX study has confirmed the successful doping of W into ZnO crystal lattices. The photodegradation performance of methylene blue was evaluated with W doped ZnO samples and pristine ZnO in aqueous solution. The measured degradation efficiencies for the different W doped ZnO samples were 5 wt%, 10 wt%, 15 wt% and 20 wt% at pH 5 are 87.8%, 92.3%, 92.8% and 96.9%), at pH 9 (72.1%, 90.7%, 92.1%, and 96.4%) and at pH 11 (80%, 85%, 87% and 89%) for the time interval of 90 min respectively. The pH of dye solution has significant effect on the degradation efficiency. These findings show that the W doped ZnO samples have superior degradation efficiency of 96.6% in a very short interval of time. The swift degradation kinetics for the W doped ZnO samples is attributed to the reduction in the energy band gap, decrease in particle size, enhanced surface area, decrease in the recombination rate and foster charge separation process. The obtained results are exciting and providing efficient earth-abundant photocatalysts for the energy and environmental purposes.Kindly confirm the Given names and Family names for all the authors.They are correct.