Sonochemical synthesis of undoped and Co-doped ZnO nanostructures and investigation of optical and photocatalytic properties

In this paper, undoped ZnO and Co-ZnO nano structures with different molar ratio of Cobalt have been synthesized by the sonochemical method. Structure have been characterized by Fourier Transform (FTIR) and UV–Vis spectroscopy, field emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive Analytical X-Ray (EDAX), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) methods. Moreover, the direct band gap has been calculated by Tauc’s approach. Moreover, mean crystal size has been estimated by Scherrer equation. Furthermore, photocatalytic activity for all samples has been investigated under UV irradiation in an aqueous medium. Compared with pure ZnO, the band gap of the Co-ZnO has been shown decrease and it is dependent on the content of dopants. Also, photocatalytic activity improves in the presence of cobalt dopant.