Abstract
Here we report, copper (Cu) and Aluminum (Al) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles by a novel one step microwave irradiation method for the first time. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that both pure and doped samples assigned to hexagonal wurtzite type structure. The calculated average crystalline size decreases from 24 to 11 nm for pure and doped (Al and Cu) ZnO respectively, which is in good agreement with the particles size observed from Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) analyses. A considerable red shift in the absorption edge and the reduction in the energy gap from 3.35 to 2.95 eV reveal the substitution of Al3+ and Cu2+ ions into the ZnO lattice analyzed by UV–Vis transmission spectra. The photocatalytic degradation of Methyl Violet (MV), Phenol and Rhodamine B (RHB) was investigated by using pure, Al and Cu doped ZnO catalyst under UV light irradiation. The results showed that the photocatalytic property is significantly improved by Cu doping concentration. This could be attributed to extended visible light absorption, inhibition of the electronehole pair’s recombination and enhanced adsorptivity of dye molecule on the surface of Cu–ZnO nanopowders. The samples were further characterized by photoluminescence spectra and Fourier Infrared Spectra (FTIR) analysis.
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