Effect of CuO on the photocatalytic performance of ZnO nanorods

In this paper, ZnO and ZnO-۱۰ wt.%CuO nanopowder were synthesized using the co-precipitation method. The structures, morphologies, and optical properties of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). According to the XRD results, ZnO nanorods were formed with hexagonal structure and by adding Cu precursor in the ZnO-CuO sample, in addition to doping part of the Cu in the crystal structure of ZnO nanorods, CuO phase was also identified in the sample. The ZnO sample with nanorod morphology and a diameter of ۸۰ nm and a length of ۳۰۰ nm was synthesized. In ZnO-CuO nanocomposite, CuO nanoparticles were uniformly formed on the surface of ZnO nanorods. The DRS results showed that the band gap energy of ZnO and ZnO-CuO samples were ۳ and ۲.۸ eV, respectively. Also, the photocatalytic test on degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under ۱۲۰ min visible light irradiation was studied. A complete MB degradation by ZnO-CuO nanocomposite was obtained. However, the degradation efficiency of ۳۵% over the ZnO sample was obtained.

Keywords:

ZnO-CuO , Nanocomposite , Photocatalyst , Degradation.