Enhanced photocatalytic degradation and synergistic effects of Tin-Doped zinc oxide nanoparticles for environmental remediation

Using zinc acetate and sodium hydroxide as starting reagents, zinc oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were constructed using a co-precipitation process. Various metal elements were incorporated into the nanocomposites. The synthesized samples underwent calcination at different temperatures for a duration of 2 h. Characterization of the samples was conducted employing XRD, SEM, EDS, and PIXE analysis. SEM imagery revealed diverse morphological alterations of ZnO after doping. The whole width at half the maximum of the XRD peaks, which indicates sizes in the nano range, was used to calculate the average crystallite sizes of the samples using Debye-Scherer's formula. EDS analysis confirmed the production of highly pure ZnO nanostructures via this method. The synthesized bimetallic and tri-metallic NPs were utilized for the degradation of hazardous organic dyes, with the degradation process monitored using UV–visible spectroscopy. This study underscores the significance of doped ZnO NPs as effective agents for biodegradation.