Investigation of Photocatalytic Activity of Nd-Doped ZnO Nanoparticles Using Brilliant Green Dye: Synthesis and Characterization

An Nd doped ZnO (1-5%) photocatalyst was successfully synthesized via chemical co-precipitation method. The optical property, nature, and morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed by UV-Visible, XRD, and FESEM respectively. XRD study reveals that Nd has been effectively incorporated in the ZnO lattice in the lower level dosage; however, the crystalline nature has been distorted towards the increase in the Nd. The selected brilliant green dye was degraded photo-catalytically with the help of the synthesized nanoparticles and the study has been extended with catalyst dosage and dye concentration. The 2% Nd-doped ZnO showed a remarkable result of 98.26% degradation of brilliant green dye compared to the other 1,3,4 & 5 % Nd-doped ZnO nanoparticles which clearly indicates the optimization of depletion region corresponding to the maximum degradation. The increased content (3-5%) of Nd-doped ZnO exhibited moderate photocatalytic degradation of the dye due to the decreased crystalline nature which was further evidenced from XRD studies.