X-ray absorption spectroscopy analysis and photocatalytic behavior of ZnTiO3 nanoparticles doped with Co and Mn synthesized by sonochemical method

Abstract

ZnTiO3 (ZTO) as a perovskite structure doped with Co and Mn were fabricated by sonochemical process. Structural phase, chemical and local atomic structure and photocatalytic activity of the synthesized samples were characterized, by X-ray diffraction, by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and Rhodamine B (RhB) dye degradation. The XRD results revealed that the mixing phases of cubic and hexagonal zinc titanate phases were found in all samples. The X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure technique (EXAFS) have been used to identify the crystal and atomic local structure of prepared samples. The Fourier transform EXAFS results of these prepared samples agreed well with the model of Co and Mn substituting at the B-site of ABO3 structure together with small cluster of CoO and Mn2O3 cluster. The photocatalytic activity for rhodamine b dye degradation under visible light irradiation exhibited that the doped samples had the superior degradation compared to bare-ZTO sample. The results suggest that the incorporation of transition metal ions of Co and Mn dopants is an effective way to improve the catalytic efficiency of perovskite ZTO structure. The effect of different dopant ions and dopant concentration on the structural, chemical, optical and photocatalytic activity are discussed.