Investigation of Mg Doped ZnO Nanoparticles Decorated with Ag for Efficient Photocatalytic Degradation

In this research, an eco-friendly technique was employed to devising undoped ZnO and Mg doped ZnO decorated with Ag nanoparticles by using leaf extract of ficus religiosa plant in which Ag is deposited by ultrasonic waves. The shape, chemical composition, morphology, size, structure, and optical properties were calculated with respect to pure ZnO and Mg-ZnO/Ag with various quantities of Mg (Mg: 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%). X-ray diffraction analysis gave confirmation of hexagonal wurtzite phase of crystalline structure for ZnO component and rod, spherical, rectangular shapes for Mg-ZnO/Ag with crystalline size range 9 nm to 46 nm. SEM explore the crystalline morphology of Mg-ZnO/Ag at nanoscale regime, EDX confirmed the composition of prepared samples consist on Mg, ZnO and Ag, FTIR technique highlighted the presence and impact of various functional groups and PL explored the energy transfer pattern and recombination rate decrease and fluctuations. The band gap calculated reduced with doping of Mg from 3.64 eV to 3.27 eV explored by tauc plot. Photocatalytic activity was explored for all samples that revealed that the Mg-ZnO/Ag (1%) exhibited maximum degradation 93% for methylene blue and 87% for rhodamine B. Kinetic reaction of all fabricated samples and degradation efficiency was explored. Comparison was made to explore the optimal efficient photocatalysts for both dyes. Moreover, stability of Mg-ZnO/Ag checked after six cycles of regeneration was 83% for MB and 74% for RhB. Therefore, current work presented a novel doped nanocomposite that could be effective for reducing water pollution and various environmental applications.