Impact of bimetal doping on the structural and optical characteristics of copper oxide nanoparticles to enhance photocatalytic degradation of dyes: an investigative study

Abstract

Metal oxide nanoparticles have attracted a lot of attention for dye degradation applications as they have better light absorption properties required for the photocatalysis. This paper presents the impact of bi-metal doping (i.e. Cerium and Tungsten) on the structural and optical properties of Copper oxide nanoparticles. Bi-metal doping has shown remarkable impact on the optical properties (i.e. enhanced light absorption) of CuO nanoparticles making it suitable for photocatalytic applications. A simple co-precipitation method was used to synthesize the pure, single-metal doped and bi-metal doped (i.e. Ce, W and Ce-W) CuO nanoparticles. XRD analysis was done to study the structural properties along with crystallite size estimation using Debye-Scherer formula. Absorption band at 852 cm-1 and 650 cm-1 in the FT-IR spectra further confirmed the presence of CeO2 & WO2 in the monoclinic phase of CuO nanoparticles. Maximum absorption wavelength and bandgap are measured using UV-VIS Spectroscopy, and it has been observed that both these quantities depend upon the choice of dopant and can be tailored just by choosing the appropriate dopant. The paper presents an extensive analysis using experimental study to compare the impact of Ce, W and bimetal (Ce-W) doping on the structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of CuO nanoparticles. Enhanced optical absorption in the complete visible range is observed in case of bi-metal doped CuO nanoparticles making it a promising candidate for photocatalytic dye degradation application.