Rapid synthesis of in situ nitrogen-doped ZnO nanoparticles for visible-light-driven photocatalytic removal of emerging contaminants

The effective functionalization of photocatalysts suitable for removing emerging contaminants poses a significant challenge. This study proposes a novel and rapid method for synthesizing in situ nitrogen-doped ZnO nano-particles to address these limitations. Using a combustion synthesis scheme, we modified the urea-to-sucrose ratio and oxide precursors to characterize the catalysts systematically. The resulting material exhibited a remarkable 40% increase in visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) over undoped ZnO. A maximum photocatalytic efficiency of 74.7% (60 min) was achieved by incorporating 50% urea in the fuel, which provided N-ZnO with a size of 120 nm, a surface area of 26 m2/g, mesoporosity, and a bandgap of 2.89 eV. With the rapid synthesis, this work surpassed the values reported in the literature. Moreover, this study presents a pathway for catalyst regeneration, underscoring the significance of the method and its potential in photocatalysis.