Effects of Terbium Doping on Structural, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of ZnO Nanopowder Prepared by Solid-State
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Effects of Terbium Doping on Structural, Optical and Photocatalytic Properties of ZnO Nanopowder Prepared by Solid‑State Reaction Taher Ghrib1,2 · Imen Massoudi1,2 · Amal L. Al‑Otaibi1,2 · Amal Al‑Malki2 · Aya Kharma2 · Eman Al‑Hashem2 · Rawan A. Al‑Ghamdi2 · Ruba A. Al‑Zuraie2 Received: 27 May 2020 / Accepted: 15 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Terbium (Tb) doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanopowders with different Tb concentrations (3%, 5% and 7%) were synthesized via a solid-state reaction method and investigated by using thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared ray spectroscopy. XRD results showed that the nanopowders have hexagonal wurtzite phase with grain size in the range of 20–56 nm with high purity. The photocatalytic efficiency tested on the degradation of methylene blue dye by hydrogen peroxide under natural UV–Vis irradiation at pH ~ 6.4 in 30 min achieved an increasing from about 3.6 to 48%. The optical properties denoted enhancement of its optical absorption in visible range from about 35 to 72%, a decreasing of its bandgap energy from 3.215 to 3.188 eV and intense photoluminescence emission under ultraviolet excitation in the green and blue spectral range whose wave lengths can be adjusted by varying the Tb doping percentage.
* Taher Ghrib [email protected] 1
Basic and Applied Scientific Research Center, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia
Department of Physics, College of Science, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials
Graphic Abstract
Keywords Zinc oxide · Terbium doping · Optical properties · Photocatalysis · Photoluminescence
1 Introduction Nanosized metal oxides were always important and basics in research fields due to their effective role in many applications [1, 2]. From these materials it can be cited the zinc oxide (ZnO), one of the most important metal oxides that attracted the interest of many researchers in the field of nanomaterials due to their low toxicity [3], high electron mobility [4], good thermal and chemical stability [5, 6]. Various properties of ZnO nanopowder makes it distinguishable compared to other semiconductors such as its wide direct bandgap (3.44 eV) with a high exciton binding energy (~ 60 meV) besides to higher optical gain (~ 300 cm −1) at room temperature [7], its good visible photoluminescence [8], High sensitivity of surface conductivity to the presence of adsorbed species [9]. These
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important physical properties allow the ZnO to be used in wide applications area such in transistors [10], solar cells [11], UV–Vis light emitting diodes [12], gas sensors [13], magnetic devices [14], and catalyst material in chemical reactions [15], etc. It can exist in two different crystallographic phases; wurtzite of hexa
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