Visible light assisted photocatalytic degradation of mixture of reactive ternary dye solution by Zn–Fe co-doped TiO2 nanoparticles

The current study deals with the synthesis of novel Zn, and Fe co-doped TiO2 photocatalyst by the sol-gel method at room temperature. The prepared photocatalysts are characterized by several standard analytical tools. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman analysis verifies the tetragonal anatase phase of TiO2 in all synthesized nanoparticles. The morphology and chemical composition of ZFT_2.5 were confirmed using the Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDAX) analysis respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements verify the binding energies of a host and dopant material. The High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) reveals the presence of spherical nanoparticles in ZFT_2.5 photocatalyst with a diameter ranging from 8 to 20 nm. The absorption spectra of the prepared nanoparticles exhibit strong absorption in visible light. The synergistic effect created by Zn and Fe blocked the light induced charge carriers and delayed the recombination probability. The photocatalyst ZFT_2.5 was tested for photocatalytic degradation against the mixture of the three cationic dyes [rhodamine B (RhB), malachite green (MG), and methylene blue (MB)] under exposure of visible light. Total organic carbon (TOC) study was performed to evaluate the organic character of the photodegradate dye solution.