Effects of ZnO/Mn Concentration on the Micro-structure and Optical Properties of ZnO/Mn–TiO2 Nano-composite for Applications in Photo-Catalysis

• Published in: Journal of inorganic and organometallic polymers and materials Vol. 29; no. 1; pp. 203 - 212
• Main Authors: Omri, K., Alonizan, N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-01-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anatase; Catalysis; Catalytic activity; Chemical synthesis; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Emission; Inorganic Chemistry; Luminescence; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Optical activity; Optical properties; Organic Chemistry; Particle size distribution; Particulate composites; Photoluminescence; Polymer Sciences; Sol-gel processes; Titanium dioxide; Ultraviolet radiation; Zinc oxide; Mn–Ti nano-composite; TiO; Sol–gel processes; Photo-catalytic property; Photo-luminescence property
• ISSN: 1574-1443; 1574-1451
• DOI: 10.1007/s10904-018-0979-4

We successfully synthesized of ZnO/Mn–TiO
2
(Mn–Ti) nano-composite for different ZnO:Mn (Zn-M) concentrations. These composites with high photo-catalytic activity derived from TiO
2
and Zn-M nanoparticles elaborated by the sol–gel method. The SEM and TEM images indicated that samples reveals well-ordered and good size distribution of particles. In addition, the composite sample showed no aggregation in similitude with the anatase TiO
2
sample. The study of optical properties of nano-composites shows that Zn-M nanoparticles caused to increase the optical activity of Mn–Ti composites samples and it established by UV–Vis, photo-luminescence, and photo-catalytic tests. The XRD study exhibited that in ours composites samples with increasing the Zn-M concentration, the particle size increased from 10 to 27 nm. PL measurements suggest that co-emission of a strong luminescence, high yellow emission at 563 nm, at 640 nm and at 774 nm is observed from the Mn–Ti composites samples. The photo-catalytic activity of the prepared nano-composite was examined for the degradation of methyl-orange (MO) by the irradiation of UV light.