Enhanced photocatalytic organic dye degradation activities of pristine and Zn-doped V2O5 nanoparticles

• Pristine and Zn-doped V 2 O 5 photo-catalysts were synthesized by Sol-gel method. • Band Structures were studied with Mott-Schottky, Valence-band XPS, and K-M function. • The photocatalytic activity of the prepared samples was tested against three industrial standard dyes, and more than 90% efficiency was achieved in 105 minutes. • Dye degradation mechanism is discussed in terms of superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. • The reusability of the prepared catalysts showed that the photocatalytic dye degradation efficiencies were almost same as that of the first time even after three cycles. This research work presents the photocatalytic activities of pristine and Zn-doped V 2 O 5 nanoparticles for the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB), Methyl Violet (MV), and Malachite Green (MG) dyes. The nanoparticles of V 2 O 5 pure and Zn with different atomic ratios (1-5 at%) doped were prepared by sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies confirm the orthorhombic phase. X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) confirms the presence of V, O, and Zn elements along with their oxidation states. Further, decreased photoluminescence (PL) intensity spectra confirm the reduced recombination rate. Band structure analysis were studied with valance band XPS (VB-XPS), Mott-Schottky (M-S) curves, and Kubelka-Munk (K-M). The Time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies showed that the charge carrier life time was increased and charge transfer resistance was lowered with increasing Zn concentration. The photocatalytic studies show excellent degradation efficiencies against MB, MV, and MG dyes. The results from the present work show the degradation time decreases as the Zn concentration increases. The reusability test was performed and the dye degradation (DD) mechanism with their kinetics are discussed in detail with the radical test. The consistency of the samples were tested by taking XRD, FTIR and BET analysis after three trials of usage.