Structural, electrochemical sensor and photocatalytic activity of combustion synthesized of novel ZnO doped CuO NPs

Abstract

CuO nanoparticles doped with various concentrations of ZnO (5, 10, and 15 mol%) were synthesized by using the solution combustion method. The as-synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by x-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), and UV–Vis spectroscope. The XRD analysis revealed that the physical parameters such as crystallite size and lattice parameters of CuO nanoparticles were affected after the doping of ZnO. The UV–Vis spectrum analysis showed an enhanced absorption spectrum and narrowed down the bandgap of CuO from 2.6 eV to 2.16 eV with ZnO doping and resulted in an increasing optical activity. The photocatalytic activities of the as-synthesized sample were investigated by the photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes such as direct green (DG) and fast blue (FB) under UV light irradiation. The highest photocatalytic efficiency is obtained with ZnO (10 mol%) doped CuO at 95.15% and 76.4% for DG and FB dyes. The electrochemical properties of CuO and Zn-CuO nanoparticles were performed using cyclic voltammetry and the results confirmed the enhancement of the redox potential output. These CuO@ZnO electrodes also displayed an enhanced capacity to detect an extremely dangerous chemical like arsenic.