Excellent improvement in photocatalytic nature of ZnO nanoparticles via Fe doping content

Abstract

A facile process has been employed to prepare the high quality ZnO nanostructures with different contents of Iron (Fe) doping. X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the synthesis of monophasic ZnO at all Fe contents and rules out the formation of secondary phase. The Scherrer formula was used to determine the particle size and noticed to be reduced from 23 nm to 9 nm when Fe doping increased from 0 to 7.5 wt%. Scanning electron microscopy study shows that the particle are of spherical shape and the size is reducing with Fe content. EDX/SEM elemental-mapping analysis confirm the synthesis of Fe doped ZnO, with homogeneous Fe distribution. A systematic reduction of energy gap was noticed from 3.287 to 3.212 eV. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO was systematically enhanced with Fe content and highest was noticed for 7.5 wt% Fe@ZnO SNPs and also degradation mechanism has been discussed.