Investigations on photocatalytic activity of Fe and Ni doped ZnO nanoparticles under direct sunlight synthesized by co-precipitation method

Visible light photocatalysis has emerged as one of the green methods to utilize sunlight for energy and environmental applications. In the present work, pure, Fe and Ni doped ZnO photocatalysts have been synthesized using co-precipitation method. The structural and morphological properties of pure, Fe and Ni doped nanoparticles were analysed using X-ray diffraction, Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photocatalytic activity was investigated by direct sunlight degradation of methylene blue dye and are studied using UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy. The X-ray diffraction studies confirmed the hexagonal wurtzite structure of all the synthesized samples and are highly crystalline. From DRS studies and Tauc plot bandgap were calculated and observed to be reduced while percentage of dopant increases. It is estimated that almost 85% of the methylene blue dye was degraded under the direct sunlight by employing UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy.