Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Mg-Doped ZnO Nanorods Prepared by Electrodeposition

Abstract

Mg-doped ZnO nanorods were prepared by electrochemical deposition method in aqueous solution. To test the sample, the results show that the sample presents a rod-like shape with hexagonal cross sections and typical morphology of wurtzite ZnO, and (002) diffraction peak of Mg-doped ZnO nanorods move to large-angle direction in XRD. The peak of Mg element has appeared in EDS. XPS shows that there is Mg-O binding in the sample. PL spectrums of the samples are observed at room temperature, the UV emission of Mg-doped ZnO presents blue shift compared with undoped ZnO, absorption spectrum shows that band gap of Mg-doped ZnO is larger. We can reach the conclusion that the Zn²⁺ ions are successfully substituted by Mg²⁺ ions in the ZnO lattice. In addition, photocatalysis property of Mg-doped ZnO nanorods is investigated. It is found that the degradation efficiency of methyl orange raise twice by Mg-doped ZnO nanorods in comparison to undoped ZnO nanorods. The result indicates that the photocatalysis activity of ZnO nanorods can enhance after Mg²⁺ ions are doped into ZnO lattice.

Keywords:

• Mg-doped ZnO
• nanorods
• electrochemical deposition
• photocatalysis

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61006065, 61076039, 61204065, 61205193,10804071), National Key Lab of High Power Semiconductor Lasers Foundation (No. 9140C310101120C031115), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (21022216110002, 20102216110001, 20112216120005), the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (20101546), the Developing Project of Science and Technology of Jilin Province (20090139, 20090555, 20121816, 201201116), the Foundation of Department of Education of Jilin Province (2011JYT05, 2011JYT10, 2011JYT11) Changchun International Science and technology cooperation project (2010CC02), Research Start Fund of Jilin Agriculture University (201238).