Synergistic effect of doping and nanotechnology to fabricate highly efficient photocatalyst for environmental remediation

Abstract

Nanotechnology and metal-doping are two promising techniques to make semiconductive material-based photocatalysts with higher surface area and modulating electronic structure. Using the simple surfactant-assisted co-precipitation approach; we synthesized nanostructured Zn-doped CuO (Zn0.4Co 0.6 O) as a visible-light-driven catalyst for environmental remediation. The morphology, texture, crystal structure, phase, charge transport properties, and chemical constitution of the as-prepared materials were characterized through advanced physiochemical characterization. Using the Rhodamine B (RhB) dye and the bacteria Escherichia coli (E-coli), the photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of CuO and Zn-doped CuO were investigated and compared to evaluate the effect of the doping technique. Surfactant-assisted synthesized Zn-doped CuO samples demonstrated excellent photocatalytic practicability against Rhodamine B dye, with a mineralization efficiency of up to 92.89% within 70 min and a high pseudo-first-order kinetic constant (K) of 0.033 min-1. The photocurrent response of the Zn-doped CuO sample was about double that of the CuO sample, demonstrating that the nanoarchitecture and modified electronic structure of the Zn-doped CuO sample resulted in increased photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, the Zn-doped CuO photocatalyst demonstrated enhanced antibacterial activity, killing E. coli bacteria by creating reactive oxygen species (ROS) that disrupt their important cellular processes and functions. Thus, our proposed Zn-doped CuO photocatalytic with faster degradation kinetics, good recyclability, and a lower electron-hole recombination probability could be used for environmental remediation. • Nanostructured Zn-doped CuO was prepared by using the surfactant co-precipitation approach. • Physicochemical and electrical properties of the Zn-doped and pristine CuO samples were investigated. • Zn-doped CuO mineralized 92.89% RhB dye in 70 min under visible light irradiation. • The kinetics, photoelectrochemical properties and reusability tests were also performed. • The Zn-doped CuO catalyst also showed excellent potential against E-coli .