Study of photodegradation performance of Zn‐doped CeO₂ nanoparticles for wastewater contaminants remediation under visible light

Abstract

The presented paper introduces a green route for the arrangement of pure and 1%, 2%, and 4% zinc doped cerium oxide nanoparticles (Zn-doped CeO 2 NPs) by involving the extract of Salvadora persica. The analytical results of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and Raman techniques confirmed the successful synthesis of NPs. According to PXRD outcomes, pure CeO 2 NPs have a cubic phase. Moreover, as a result of the zinc doping within the crystal framework of this material, a noticeable alteration was observed in the placement of CeO 2 (101) peak. The size of pure CeO 2 NPs was measured by the FESEM analysis to be around 20-25 nm, which was decreased with the doping of zinc into CeO 2 structure. According to the UV-Vis outcomes, appeared peak in 343 cm À1 confirmed the formation of CeO 2 NPs; and this peak shifted by the doping of zinc. The observed Raman active band F 2g at 459 cm À1 in the graph of CeO 2 can be related to the fluorite type of CeO 2 construction. Moreover, we evaluated the photocatalytic functionality of the prepared samples towards acid orange 7 (AO7) dye at visible light. The gathered data indicated 2% Zn-doped CeO 2 as the optimum sample due to eliminating 83% of AO7 dye at the volume of 15 mg L À1 in pH = 7. Therefore, performing a doping process on these NPs was a suitable choice for improving the photocatalytic activity of CeO 2 on AO7 dye.