Effect of ball milling on optical properties and visible photocatalytic activity of Fe doped ZnO nanoparticles

Nanocomposites of ZnO have been synthesized by auto-combustion technique to study their electrical (dielectric and direct current), optical, and structural properties by increasing copper content in these composites. Techniques used for characterizing these composite nanoparticles involve X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis spectrophotometry, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction patterns suggested hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO, which remains unchanged upon increasing the amount of Cu dopant. However, there is a noticeable decrease in the particle size with rising Cu content. Morphology of the crystallites, as observed by scanning electron microscopy, is nearly spherical. Dielectric parameters, including dielectric constant and dielectric loss, decrease, whilst AC conductivity increases with the increase of Cu content as well as with the rise of frequency of the applied alternating biasing field. In addition, DC electrical conductivity is also improved by the enhancement of Cu doping percentage and temperature. These variations of electrical parameters of nanocomposites allow their potential utilization in those devices which are operated at high frequencies. Band gap energy Eg, analyzed by UV-vis spectrophotometer, is noticed to decrease upon rising Cu content from 3.39 eV to 2.46 eV, and depicts a red shift from UV to visible light region. PL emission intensity decreased in the studied light spectrum by increasing Cu content implying that the recombination rate of photo-induced charge carriers decreases effectively. Thus, upon Cu doping reduction in Eg occurs, which along with the reduced recombination rates of photogenerated electrons and holes pairs, becomes a cause of the participation of more and more charge carriers in the photocatalysis process in order to degrade the organic compounds.

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“…The dopants, like transition metals (i.e. Co, Fe, Ni, and Cu), assist in enhancing the non-linear coefficient [22,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Copper Doping on the Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Auto-Combustion Synthesized ZnO Nanocomposites

et al. 2019

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“…No additional band appeared, demonstrating that no new phases came out with milling, as also demonstrated by the XRD results. Reddy et al (2019) (Reddy et al, 2019) studied the effect of Fe doped ZnO nanoparticles ball milled in a planetary mill on its optical property. The lowest optical band gap was achieved after 40h of milling, and the authors attributed the superior photocatalytic activity if the Fe doped ZnO to an increase in the electron-hole pair separation due to the inter charge diffusion between the bands.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, it consists of a technique for doping ceramic oxides. Some studies have reported applications of ball-milled powders (Bégin-Colin et al, 2009;Dias et al, 2016;Otis et al, 2021;Reddy et al, 2019;Šepelák, Bégin-Colin, & Le Caër, 2012). For ZnO semiconductors, besides other important properties such as size and surface area, the exposure surface and the surface defects play an important role in its applications (D. Chen et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Güler et al (2016) (Güler, Güler, Evin, & Islak, 2016) investigated the influence of milling time and Fe2O3 content on the optical and electrical properties of ZnO and the results showed enhanced properties with potential for photocatalysis. Reddy et al (2019) (Reddy et al, 2019) evaluated the photocatalytic activity of Fe doped ZnO nanoparticles obtained by HEBM. The authors achieved high percentage of degradation using a milling time of 40h.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors achieved high percentage of degradation using a milling time of 40h. Doping using several metal ions have also been used to enhance the ZnO optical and catalytic activity, such as Cu (Chandekar et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2019), Co (Gonçalves, Paganini, Armillotta, Cerrato, & Calza, 2019), Fe (Reddy et al, 2019;Yin et al, 2017), among others (Khalid et al, 2019;Promod Kumar et al, 2020). Sharma et al (2016) (N. Sharma, Jandaik, & Kumar, 2016) also demonstrated that doping ZnO nanoparticles with Fe showed improved antimicrobial activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of the shaker mill in the properties of ZnO processed by high energy milling

Storion

Pallone

Giraldi

et al. 2021

RSD

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This work evaluates how the High Energy Ball Milling (HEBM) in a shaker mill influences the optical, physical, and microstructural properties of ZnO. The procedure also combines Fe inclusion from the grinding medium with particle size reduction. ZnO powder was milled by 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 h, which resulted in a particle size reduction to the nanometric scale with a mean size of around 50 nm and a crystallite size reduction by three times when processed from 4 h. Milling has proven to be an efficient process for obtaining nanoparticles with an incredibly short processing time and changed the morphology of the particles from random to spherical shapes. Results also indicate the processing progressively expanded the ZnO hexagonal structure due to the imposed strain and Fe inclusion, which can help to decrease the bandgap and slow down the recombination rate of the electron-hole pairs, improving the photocatalysis activity. The optical results showed no additional band appeared due to milling processes and diminished the bandgap from 3.37 to 3.21 eV. Milling also led to an increase in the c value from 5.2076 to 5.2112 Å, which is one of the most important factors for improved antibacterial activity. HEBM has proved to be a suitable process for obtaining ZnO nanoparticles with properties useful for various applications.

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Nanocrystals for Environmental Remediation

Ashiq

Manzoor

Abid

et al. 2022

Nanotechnology for Environmental Remediation

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Effect of ball milling on optical properties and visible photocatalytic activity of Fe doped ZnO nanoparticles

Cited by 51 publications

References 50 publications

Impact of Copper Doping on the Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Auto-Combustion Synthesized ZnO Nanocomposites

Impact of Copper Doping on the Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Auto-Combustion Synthesized ZnO Nanocomposites

Influence of the shaker mill in the properties of ZnO processed by high energy milling

Nanocrystals for Environmental Remediation

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