Photocatalysis of Cd‐doped ZnO synthesized with precipitation method

Abstract ZnO particles doped with 0 mol%–5 mol% Cd dopant were successfully synthesized by a precipitation method. The as‐synthesized products were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with an energy‐dispersive X‐ray (EDX) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The precursors showed weight loss at 35–700 °C caused by phase transformation and evaporation processes. The as‐synthesized products were specified as hexagonal wurtzite ZnO. The crystallite size of ZnO samples doped with 0 mol%–5 mol% Cd gradually increased with the increase in Cd content. The photocatalytic activities of 0 mol%–5 mol% Cd‐doped ZnO samples were evaluated through photodecolorization of methylene blue (MB) under ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In this research, ZnO doped with 3 mol% Cd shows the best photocatalytic activity in degrading of MB molecules as much as 89% within 240 min.