Chemical precipitation synthesis and significant enhancement in photocatalytic activity of Ce-doped ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract Ce-doped ZnO nanoparticles were successfully fabricated via a chemical precipitation method without any assistant catalyst. The effects of cerium doping concentration on the structures, morphologies, photoluminescence properties and photocatalytic activities of Ce-doped ZnO nanoparticles were briefly investigated. The results showed that Ce 4+ ions were successfully incorporated into the ZnO host and the as-synthesized products were well-crystalline. The size of the nanoparticles decreased with increasing the Ce doping concentration due to the interaction among the Ce-O-Zn ions. The Ce-doped ZnO nanoparticles with narrowed band gap exhibited much higher photocatalytic activities than that of undoped one for the degradation of methyl orange (MO) in aqueous solution under UV radiation. The cerium doping concentration strongly influenced the photocatalytic activity and the increase of the defects played main role in the enhanced photocatalytic activities of the Ce-doped nanoparticles.