Abstract
Pure and Fe-doped zinc oxide nanocrystalline films were preparedvia a sol–gel method using -C for 2 h.The thin films were prepared and characterized by X-ray diffraction(XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field emission scanningelectron microscopy (FE-SEM) and UV- visible spectroscopy. TheXRD results showed that ZnO has hexagonal wurtzite structure andthe Fe ions were well incorporated into the ZnO structure. As the Felevel increased from 2 wt% to 8 wt%, the crystallite size reduced incomparison with the pure ZnO. The transmittance spectra were thenrecorded at wavelengths ranging from 300 nm to 1000 nm. Theoptical band gap energy of spin-coated films also decreased as Fedoping concentration increased. In particular, their optical band gapenergies were 3.75, 3.6, 3.5, 3.45 and 3.3 eV doping concentration of0%, 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% Fe, respectively. The performance of thepure and doped ZnO thin films was examined for the photocatalyticactivity using organic dyes (methyl orange, methyl blue, methylviolet). The samples ZnO with concentration of Fe showed increasedphotocatalytic activity with an optimal maximum performance at0.8 wt%.
Highlights
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor compound of the II-VI family, with wide and direct band gap of (3.37 eV) [1] and large exiton binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature in the ultraviolet (UV) range abundant in nature, nontoxic and environmental friendly photocatalyst [2]
The photocatalytic activity of pure and Fe-doped ZnO samples was determined from the degradation of methyl orange (MO), methyl blue (MB) and methyl violet (MV) were chosen as the target compounds during its catalytic decomposition
The intensity of all the diffraction peaks was found decreasing with increasing Fe doping concentration. This caused by the formation of the stresses resulting from the effects of disorders or defects created by the Fe ions in the ZnO lattice structure [21], or because the kinetics of crystal growth has effected by chemical reactivity of the dopant [22], due to the low chemical reactivity of the iron in the zinc oxide lattice compared to the zinc, adding iron into ZnO lattice decreased the crystal growth speed and the crystallite sizes
Summary
Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor compound of the II-VI family, with wide and direct band gap of (3.37 eV) [1] and large exiton binding energy (60 meV) at room temperature in the ultraviolet (UV) range abundant in nature, nontoxic and environmental friendly photocatalyst [2] It has high catalytic efficiency with low cost, so that is one of the most widely used photocatalysts. To absorb visible light of solar spectrum, the energy band gap should be decreased by doping [12] Many methods, such as hydrothermal method [13], sol-gel method [14], plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [15], rf-magnetron sputtering [16], electro spinning [17] and so on are used to produce ZnO or doped ZnO thin films [18]. The films were dried at 150 oC for twenty min and annealed at 500 oC for 2 h
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