Fabrication of nanostructure M/ZnO (M = V, Bi, and Cu) semiconductors: Synthesis, structural and photocatalytic study

Abstract

Vanadium, bismuth, and copper loaded ZnO crystals were synthesized and characterized by FTIR, XRD, DRUV, SEM-EDS, and BET techniques. XRD and adsorption–desorption analysis shows that the structure of ZnO remains intact after various modifications, while spectral technique shows the successful immobilizing of the metal on the support. The effect of loaded metals (V, Bi, and Cu) of the same concentration on the photocatalytic and structural characteristics of metal loaded ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) were then investigated. The obtained band gap values were in the 3.33–3.37 eV range. The photoefficiency of this nanosized M/ZnO in photodegradation of Malachite Green (MG) was studied.