Synthesis, Photocatalytic Applications of AI Gum Stabilized Cobalt Doped Zno Nanoparticles in Methylene Blue Dye

Abstract

The current study used a traditional wet chemical approach to manufacture Azadirachta indica gum (AI gum) stabilized cobalt (Co) doping on ZnO (Co: ZnO NPs), and we investigated the structural, morphological, and optical aspects of the resulting materials. Nanoparticles are defined as ultrafine particles sized between 1 and 100 nanometres in diameter. In recent decades, there has been wide scientific research on the various uses of nanoparticles in construction, electronics, manufacturing, cosmetics, and medicine. The advantages of using nanoparticles in construction are immense, promising extraordinary physical and chemical properties for modified construction materials. Among the many different types of nanoparticles, titanium dioxide, carbon nanotubes, silica, copper, clay, and aluminium oxide are the most widely used nanoparticles in the construction sector.Average particle size and shape of AI-Co: ZnO NPs were observed using high-resolution Schottky emitter FE-SEM. The surface morphological images of FE-SEM exhibit that all the particles were spherical. From UV-Visible Spectroscopy (UV) analysis, the absorption intensity was slightly shifted to lower wavelength due to variation in the cobalt concentration and the bandgap was increased with an increase in doping percentage of cobalt. The calculated band gap energy was 3.55 eV, 3.57 eV and 3.59 eV for AI-Zn_0.97Co_0.03O, AI-Zn_0.95Co_0.05O and AI-Zn_0.93Co_0.07O nanoparticles, respectively. The chemical functional group or molecular structure of AI-Co: ZnO NPs was studied using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technique. X-Ray diffraction studies shows hexagonal form with particle size 16-18 nm. The degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) was found to be 48%, 58% and 74% for 0.01 g, 0.02 g and 0.03 g of 0.5% cobalt doped AI gum stabilized Co-doped ZnO nanoparticles.