Photocatalytic and magnetic properties of Zn1−xCrxO nanocomposites prepared by a co-precipitation method

Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) capped Zn1−xCrxO (0.000001≤x≤0.1) nanocomposites were successfully synthesized using a simple chemical co-precipitation technique. The synthesized nanostructures were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV–visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements. The structural characterization by XRD, TEM, FTIR and EDXRF confirmed the formation of wurtzite structure and incorporation of Cr in the ZnO lattice. The photocatalytic activities of as prepared nanocomposites were evaluated by degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye in aqueous solution under UV/sunlight light irradiation. The results demonstrated that Zn1−xCrxO (x=0.0001) nanocomposite effectively bleached out MB, showing as impressive photocatalytic enhancement over pure ZnO and ZnS nanoparticles. This enhanced photocatalytic activity at optimum concentration was attributed to increased absorption ability of light and high separation rate of photoinduced charge carriers on the nanocomposite photocatalyst surface. The VSM measurements showed significant ferromagnetism in Cr-doped ZnO nanostructures and the value of saturated magnetism was found to decrease with increase in Cr content.