Study of Low Temperature Preparation of Al Doped ZnO Powder and its Photocatalytic Properties

Abstract:

Aluminum doped ZnO crystal powders have been successfully prepared by sol-gel method with low temperature (150°C) crystallization process. The AlNO₃ as material dopant were varied by 0.5 wt% and 1.0 wt% relate to 5 mmol of zinc acetate dihydrate as precursor. Degradation of the methylene blue (MB) was used to evaluate the photocatalytic property. The results showed that all ZnO samples have spherical morphology with hexagonal wurtzite crystal structures. The ZnO powder with 0.5 wt % of aluminum has a better photocatalytic property that related to the optical characteristics. The optimum of Al content (0.5wt%) reduces the crystallite size and give some advantages in optical characteristics that directly relate to the increments in photocatalytic behavior. The photodegradation rate of Al doped ZnO 0.5 wt% is increase almost 100% compared with ZnO undoped. The stability and reusability of 0.5 wt% Al doped ZnO as photocatalyst, is also observed by monitoring the photocatalytic behavior under 14 hours irradiation (in three recycle used)

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 860)
• Pages: 329-337
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/KEM.860.329
• Online since: August 2020
• Authors: Annisa Aprilia*, Davi Putri Hanavi, Choiry Ghina Afrilia, Ayi Bahtiar, Sri Suryaningsih, Lusi Safriani
• Keywords: Aluminum, Cationic Dopant, Metal Oxide, Photocatalytic, Sol-Gel Method, ZnO Crystal Powder

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