Photocatalysis of Cd-doped ZnO synthesized with precipitation method

摘要

ZnO particles doped with 0 mol%-5 mol% Cd dopant were successfully synthesized by a precipitation method.The as-synthesized products were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis(TGA),differential scanning calorimetry(DSC),X-ray diffraction(XRD),photoluminescence(PL) spectroscopy,Raman spectroscopy,scanning electron microscopy(SEM) coupled with an energydispersive X-ray(EDX) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy(TEM).The precursors showed weight loss at 35-700℃ caused by phase transformation and evaporation processes.The as-synthesized products were specified as hexagonal wurtzite ZnO.The crystallite size of ZnO samples doped with 0 mol%-5 mol% Cd gradually increased with the increase in Cd content.The photocatalytic activities of 0 mol%-5 mol% Cd-doped ZnO samples were evaluated through photodecolorization of methylene blue(MB) under ultraviolet(UV) radiation.In this research,ZnO doped with 3 mol% Cd shows the best photocatalytic activity in degrading of MB molecules as much as 89% within 240 min.