Synthesis, structural characterizations, and photocatalytic application of silver-doped indium oxide ceramic nanoparticles

This work presents a cost-effective methodology for simplifying the preparation of doped ceramic materials at the nanoscale. Pristine indium oxide (IO) and Ag-doped indium oxide (IAO) have been synthesized using a sophisticated wet-chemical method with adjusted physical conditions, surfactant addition rate, and annealing temperature to tailor the desired structural characteristics. The effect of silver doping on the indium oxide ceramic's electronic, optical, electrical, physical, and structural features has been studied using XRD, FTIR, photoluminescence (PL), UV/Vis, I–V SEM, and EDX techniques. The noble metal doping decreased the band gap, slowed the e−/h+ recombination probability, induced structural defects, and tuned the surface-to-volume ratio; all these features made the doped catalyst a more promising candidate for photocatalytic application than the undoped counterpart. According to the pseudo-first-order kinetic model, the IAO photocatalyst demonstrated a reaction rate of 0.20 min−1, resulting in the efficient elimination of 87.2 % of the crystal violet (CV) dye. The indium oxide doped with noble metal exhibited a remarkable retention rate of 96.5 % in cyclic activity after undergoing four reusability tests. The scavenging tests have shown that the hydroxyl free radical is the predominant species involved in the process of dye degradation. The physical and application investigations have shown that our recently produced nanostructured material, doped with noble metals and indium oxide, has promise as a viable material for effective light absorption and quick elimination of azo dyes.