Solid state synthesis of erbium doped ZnO with excellent photocatalytic activity and enhanced visible light emission

The doped ZnO crystals with different erbium content were prepared by solid state reaction technique. The method is simple, relatively less expense and enables the production in large scale. The samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), UV/vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and photoluminescence techniques. Photocatalytic activity of samples was investigated by the degradation of methylene blue under UV light irradiation and was observed that, small fractions of erbium incorporation have a significant role in the enhancement of photocatalytic activity of ZnO. And the good stability of prepared catalysts makes them suitable for practical applications. Fluorescent property studies of erbium doped ZnO at room temperature show enhanced visible light emission due to the production of induced defects like antisite oxygen OZn and interstitial oxygen Oi. This work reports the co-existence of two mutually exclusive properties such as fluorescence and photocatalytic activity at their best in 0.6 wt% erbium doped ZnO.