Photocatalytic and fluorescent chemical sensing applications of La-doped ZnO nanoparticles
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Photocatalytic and fluorescent chemical sensing applications of La‑doped ZnO nanoparticles Manoj Kumar1 · Kuldeep Negi1 · Ahmad Umar2,3 · M. S. Chauhan1 Received: 12 June 2020 / Accepted: 8 October 2020 © Institute of Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences 2020
Abstract Herein, we report the facile solution phase precipitation synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles doped with various concentrations, i.e. 1, 5 and 10 mol% of lanthanum (La). The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized in detail by several techniques which confirmed the high-density growth and well-crystalline nature of La-doped ZnO nanoparticles. The XRD results revealed the successful incorporation of 1 mol% La ions in the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO; however, small XRD peaks of La2O3 were detected in 5 and 10 mol% La-doped samples. All the La-doped nanoparticles were found to be UV responsive. For the application prospective, all the synthesized nanoparticles were used as photocatalyst for the photocatalytic degradation of three toxic dyes, i.e. methyl orange (MO), Rhodamine B (Rh B) dyes and picric acid (PA). By detailed photocatalytic investigations, interestingly, 1 mol% La-doped ZnO was found to be most efficient photocatalyst towards the degradation of all three organic dyes. Further, the synthesized nanoparticles were also used as fluorescent probe for the fluorescence sensing of picric acid (PA). Remarkably, the 1 mol% nanoparticles exhibited highest sensitivity, i.e. lowest limit of detection (LOD) value (1.05 µM L−1) towards PA compared to 5 and 10 mol% (1.38 µM L−1) La-doped ZnO nanoparticles. Keywords La-doped ZnO nanoparticles · Photocatalysis · Fluorescent sensor
Introduction Nanostructured zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising semiconductor material because of its intriguing features, such as bio-compatibility, cost-effectiveness, large exciton binding energy (~ 60 meV), direct energy bandgap of 3.37 eV and rich morphological features (Umar and Hahn 2010; Umar 2017; Umar et al. 2011; Kumar et al. 2017a, b; Ajmal et al. 2019; Biswas et al. 2019; Huda et al. 2019). Nanoscale ZnO is studied widely for its potential technological applications, such as sensors, photocatalysis, UV lasers, solar cells, * Ahmad Umar [email protected] * M. S. Chauhan [email protected] 1
Department of Chemistry, H. P. University, Gyan Path, Summer Hill, Shimla‑5, India
2
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, Najran University, Najran 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
3
Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, Najran 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
light emitting diodes arrays, and piezoelectric nanogenerators (Umar and Hahn 2010; Umar 2017; Umar et al. 2011, 2019 Kumar et al. 2014; Chaudhary et al. 2018; Chaudhary and Umar 2017; Wang 2004; Wang and Song 2006; Mao et al. 2019; Sannakashappanavar et al. 2019). Among several applications, ZnO has attracted more specifically, tremendous interest as photocatalyst for the degradation of several water pollutants due to its n
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