Morphological evaluation and boosted photocatalytic activity of N-doped ZnO nanoparticles prepared via Co-precipitation method

Pristine and nitrogen (N) doped zinc oxide (ZnN(x)O(1-x), x = 0, 0.005, 0.01, and 0.02) nanoparticles (NPs) were successfully synthesized using chemical co-precipitation approach. The formation of pure crystalline wurtzite ZnO phase without any second phase during N-doping was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of N-doped ZnO samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) analysis ensured the effective inclusion of nitrogen into ZnO matrix. The morphological analysis revealed the formation of nanorods as a result of N-doping. The optical band gap calculated from UV–vis spectroscopy was observed to decrease up to 1 mol.% N doping followed by a subtle increase. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra revealed that electron-hole recombination was the least for 1 mol.% N doped ZnO NPs. ZnN(0.01)O(0.99) NPs showed superior photocatalytic activity among all samples due to rod-shaped NPs and reduced electron-hole recombination, which was accessed by the photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB).