Rapid organic dye degradation and wavelength dependent sensing study in Cu1-xFexO

Abstract

Cu1-xFexO (x = 0, 0.0156, 0.0234 and 0.0312) nanoparticles have been synthesized by using a simple sol-gel route. A pure monoclinic phase (space group c2/c) was observed from XRD studies. A Rietveld analysis of the XRD spectra using GSAS software helped evaluate the variations of lattice constant, lattice strain and bond length/angles. With Fe doping, while the indirect bandgap could be nominally tuned from ∼1.40 eV to ∼1.46 eV, the Fe-doping seems to improve carrier concentration, mobility, and lattice regularity than pure CuO. The photocatalytic degradation of toxic methylene blue (MB) dye could be enhanced from 0.91%/min for the pure CuO to 1.48%/min for 3.125%-Fe-doped CuO. This property has been correlated to the carrier properties of the materials. The UV and visible photoresponse of Cu1-xFexO nanoparticles was investigated. A drastic reduction in both UV and visible light-sensitivity with Fe-doping was observed and correlated with carrier properties. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.