Effects of ZnO/Mn Concentration on the Micro-structure and Optical Properties of ZnO/Mn–TiO2 Nano-composite for Applications in Photo-Catalysis

We successfully synthesized of ZnO/Mn–TiO2 (Mn–Ti) nano-composite for different ZnO:Mn (Zn-M) concentrations. These composites with high photo-catalytic activity derived from TiO2 and Zn-M nanoparticles elaborated by the sol–gel method. The SEM and TEM images indicated that samples reveals well-ordered and good size distribution of particles. In addition, the composite sample showed no aggregation in similitude with the anatase TiO2 sample. The study of optical properties of nano-composites shows that Zn-M nanoparticles caused to increase the optical activity of Mn–Ti composites samples and it established by UV–Vis, photo-luminescence, and photo-catalytic tests. The XRD study exhibited that in ours composites samples with increasing the Zn-M concentration, the particle size increased from 10 to 27 nm. PL measurements suggest that co-emission of a strong luminescence, high yellow emission at 563 nm, at 640 nm and at 774 nm is observed from the Mn–Ti composites samples. The photo-catalytic activity of the prepared nano-composite was examined for the degradation of methyl-orange (MO) by the irradiation of UV light.