Monocrotophos pesticide effectively removed by novel visible light driven Cu doped ZnO photocatalyst

In the work, we successfully synthesized Cu doped ZnO materials for photocatalytic degradation of monocrotophos pesticide (MCP). The used Cu metal doped into the ZnO matrix created an intermediate band to excite electron from valence band (VB) to conduction band (CD) of the ZnO leading to increase in optical absorption, decrease in band gap as well as photocatalytic performance of the material. Hence, the synthesized photocatalyst showed intense activity for photocatalytic degradation of MCP into CO2, H2O and harmless inorganic ions even under visible radiation. We also investigated that the 3Cu-ZnO photocatalyst, which the weight ratio of Cu/ZnO was 3 wt%, showed the highest MCP degradation efficiency among these synthesized Cu-ZnO. The excess do pants tended to form CuO existing on ZnO surface. The formed CuO acted as a center for recombination of produced electrons and holes resulted in decrease in photocatalytic performance of the Cu-ZnO. Finally, we investigated that the optimal pH for the degradation of MCP by the synthesized Cu doped ZnO photocatalyst was pH 7.