Tungsten-doped ZnO nanocomposite: Synthesis, characterization, and highly active photocatalyst toward dye photodegradation

A series of W-doped ZnO nanocomposite with different W contents were synthesized by sol–gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma (ICP) and BET surface area measurement. The XRD results revealed that all the W-doped samples showed a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The results of EDS and XPS revealed that W was doped into ZnO structure. The particle size of doped ZnO is much smaller as compared to that of pure ZnO. The photocatalytic activity of undoped ZnO and W-doped ZnO was evaluated by the photodegradation of methylene blue in aqueous solution. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of the W-doped ZnO is much higher than that of undoped ZnO and the optimum percentage of doped W is 4 mol%. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of the W-ZnO samples may be related to the narrowing of the band gap, increase in the charge separation efficiency, particle size reduction and increase of the surface area.