Abstract
Visible-light-induced Fe-doped zinc oxide photocatalysts with nominal compositions Zn1-xFexO (x=0.0, 0.05) via sol-gel combustion method have been investigated. The structural, thermal, morphological, elemental, magnetic and optical properties have been investigated systematically using X-ray diffractometer, thermogravimetric analysis, field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, physical properties measurement system and UV/vis-spectrophotometer, respectively. Wurtzite-type hexagonal crystal structure was evident from the diffraction analysis. The doping of Fe3+ at Zn-site in ZnO helped to reduce its bandgap energy, attributed to the creation of an extra level near band edges. The synthesized materials exhibited an enhanced photocatalytic activity visualized using degradation of methylene blue under the irradiation of visible-light. Pseudo-first-order rate law was also applied to study the reaction kinetics of methylene blue catalyzed by visible-light irradiation.