Fe-doped SrZrO3 nanostructures as photocatalyst: Solid-state synthesis and UV-light driven eradication of thymol blue dye

In this study, pristine and Fe-doped Strontium Zirconate (SZF₀ and SZF₁₀) nanophosphors were synthesized using a simple solid-state method. The structural and optical properties of the synthesized materials were extensively characterized using Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD), UV–visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The PXRD analysis confirmed the multiple phase purity and crystallinity with #96–900–0228 (orthorhombic) and #96–153–8368 (cubic) of the samples, having calculated crystallite size of 22.2 nm for SZF₀ and 21.4 nm for SZF_10. UV-visible spectroscopy revealed the quenching of bandgap energies from 3.24 eV to 1.65 eV for effective UV-light absorption. Raman spectroscopy provided insights into the prominent vibrational modes (A_g, B_{2 g}, and B_{3 g}) and structural integrity of the doped and undoped samples. Morphological analysis through FESEM and EDAX affirmed the agglomerated cluster clubbed morphology and stated elements of the SZF₁₀ sample with particle size distribution averaging at 22.11 nm which was well aligned with PXRD results. Meanwhile, the TEM analysis confirms the same with high crystallinity. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized SZF₁₀ sample was evaluated by degrading TB dye under various experimental conditions. The results show a prominent degradation rate of 81.04 % at the 90th minute. The same results were utilized in studying the kinetics of the degradation process which align with the 1st-order kinetics with k and R² values of 0.00737 and 0.98034, respectively. The influence of different parameters such as pH, catalyst dosage, and dye concentration on the degradation efficiency was systematically studied to obtain the optimum values.