Diode characteristics, piezo-photocatalytic antibiotic degradation and hydrogen production of Ce3+ doped ZnO nanostructures

Hussein M Elmehdi; Krithikadevi Ramachandran; Siva Chidambaram; Gurukaelaiarasu Tamilarasi Mani; Saravanan Pandiaraj; Sondos Abdullah Alqarni; Kais Daoudi; Mounir Gaidi

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.141015

Diode characteristics, piezo-photocatalytic antibiotic degradation and hydrogen production of Ce³⁺ doped ZnO nanostructures

Chemosphere. 2024 Feb:350:141015. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.141015. Epub 2023 Dec 26.

Authors

Hussein M Elmehdi¹, Krithikadevi Ramachandran², Siva Chidambaram³, Gurukaelaiarasu Tamilarasi Mani⁴, Saravanan Pandiaraj⁵, Sondos Abdullah Alqarni⁶, Kais Daoudi⁷, Mounir Gaidi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Physics and Astronomy, College of Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates. Electronic address: hmelmehdi@sharjah.ac.ae.
² Centre for Advanced Materials Research, Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; University College of Engineering, BIT Campus, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India.
³ Department of Physics and Nanotechnology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, 603203, India. Electronic address: sivac@srmist.edu.in.
⁴ Department of Physics and Nanotechnology, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, 603203, India.
⁵ Department of Self-Development Skills, CFY Deanship, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Electrical Engineering, King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Applied Physics and Astronomy, College of Sciences, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates; Centre for Advanced Materials Research, Research Institute of Sciences and Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah 27272, United Arab Emirates.

PMID: 38154676
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.141015

Abstract

Piezo-photocatalysis of ZnO nanostructures had recently well attracted due to their exceptional potential in degrading the antibiotics and scalable hydrogen production. Here, we have synthesized the Ce³⁺ doped ZnO nanospheres in a facile wet chemical strategy. Dopant ions induced morphological evolution and optical bandgap tuning had observed in our experiment. Optical absorbance spectrum had confirmed the bandgap shortening occurs with Ce³⁺ doped ZnO specimens. The bandgap gap value had reduced to 2.82 eV from 3.05eV confirming the visible light responsivity of ZnO nano specimens. Obtained Zn_(1-x)Ce_xO nanospheres were utilized to fabricate the p-Si/n- Zn_(1-x)Ce_xO heterojunction diodes as well studied the improved electrical conductivity for the Ce³⁺ specimen-based diodes. Besides, ideality factor and barrier height values of the heterojunction diodes ZnO/p-Si, Zn_0.99Ce_0.01O/p-Si, Zn_0.97Ce_0.03O/p-Si, and Zn_0.95Ce_0.05O/p-Si are 15.97 & 0.43 eV, 15.47 & 0.44 eV, 8.02 & 0.46 eV and 5.21 & 0.47 eV, respectively. Direct sunlight assisted piezo-photocatalytic tetracycline (TC) degradation efficiency of ZnO, Zn_0.99Ce_0.01O, Zn_0.97Ce_0.03O, and Zn_0.95Ce_0.05O nanostructures respectively are 64%, 69%, 74% and 82%. We have produced the hydrogen quantity of 1234 μ mol h^-1, 1490 μ mol h^-1, 1750 μ mol h^-1 and 1980 μ mol h^-1 with 0%, 1%, 3% and 5% Ce³⁺ doped ZnO specimens under the direct sunlight assisted piezo-photocatalytic H₂ production from H₂S splitting.

Keywords: Diode properties; Hydrogen production; Photocatalysis; Piezocatalysis; ZnO.

MeSH terms

Light
Nanostructures* / chemistry
Sunlight
Zinc Oxide* / chemistry

Substances

Zinc Oxide