Photocatalytic Characteristics of Cobalt Doped ZnO and Cobalt/Manganese Co-Doped ZnO Nanocrystalline Materials Synthesized by Soft Chemical Route: Effective Elimination of Orange G Dye under UV Light

The cobalt (Co) doped ZnO (Zn1-xCoxO1-delta) and cobalt (Co)/manganese (Mn) co-doped ZnO (Zn1-x-yMnxCoyO1-delta) nanocrystalline materials were prepared using soft chemical synthesis route. Their fundamental and photo-physical properties were studied by XRD, FTIR, EDAX, SEM, TEM, BET and UV techniques. The photocatalytic studies of the samples were carried out using Orange G (OG) dye as a model contaminant where 25 mol% Co/Mn co-doped ZnO (CM-25) showed a higher degradation percentage (80%) than that of all Co doped ZnO samples. The factors influencing photocatalytic degradation of dye such as, amount of catalyst, dye concentration and pH were also studied.