In this work, palladium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticle photocatalysts with various amounts of palladium are prepared through a solution combustion method. Their crystal structure, optical, morphological, and thermal properties are examined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), UV-vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. The XRD results demonstrate that palladium doping does not induce any secondary phases related to metallic palladium or palladium oxides. The inclusion of palladium with ZnO decreases the bandgap value and the lowest bandgap value of 3.19 eV is evaluated for the 3% palladium-doped ZnO photocatalyst. The Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis reveals the characteristic stretching vibrations of ZnO at 460 cm −1 in all the synthesized photocatalysts. Palladium doping induces thermal stability enhancement in the synthesized photocatalysts. The optimal palladium doping enhances the photocatalytic degradation efficiency significantly against methylene blue (MB) dye. A plausible mechanism is also discussed for photocatalytic degradation enhancement due to palladium doping.
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