Zinc and boron co-doped nanotitania with enhanced photocatalytic degradation of Acid Red 6A under visible light irradiation

The present investigation summarizes the synthesis and characterization of zinc and boron co-doped TiO2 nano catalyst by sol gel method at relatively low temperature and explored the optimum reaction parameters for the degradation of Acid Red 6A (AR 6A) under visible light irradiation. The structural, morphological, surface properties of the synthesized photocatalysts were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, UV-Vis-Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, X-ray Photo Electron Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform-Infra Red Spectroscopy. The findings of the characterization results revealed that Zn2+ ion was substitutionally doped into TiO2 lattice by replacing Ti4+ ion and a part of the boron substituted the oxygen in TiO2 lattice and the remaining amount was converted to B2O3 due to calcinations at 450 degrees C. The degradation of AR 6A was achieved at optimum reaction parameters, such as pH = 6 with a catalyst dosage 100 mg L-1 for the degradation of 5 mg L-1 of dye solution.