Copper-Doped ZnO Visible Light Photocatalyst for Degradation of Methylene Blue

Water pollution due to uncontrolled liberation of industrial toxic chemicals, materials, drugs and dyes is one of the major causes of environmental contamination. Solar energy is one of the natural energy sources that can degrade toxic dyes in the presence of suitable active catalysts. Despite of having several advanced semiconductor-based photocatalysts, there is an open domain for the preparation of economical, cheap and high effective photocatalysts for the degradation of toxic dyes. In this study, we have prepared nanosized Cu-doped ZnO photocatalysts containing different amounts of Cu (0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 wt%) by a hydrothermal process followed by calcination at 500 °C for methylene blue (MB) degradation. The incorporation of Cu into the ZnO lattice and the crystal structure stability of the prepared catalysts are confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction. Our study shows that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO toward MB degradation under visible light can be effectively enhanced by doping it with Cu.