Enhanced visible light photodegradation activity of RhB/MB from aqueous solution using nanosized novel Fe-Cd co-modified ZnO.

A series of novel Fe-Cd co-doped ZnO nanoparticle based photocatalysts are successfully synthesized by sol-gel route and characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray emission (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) techniques. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanoparticles doped with various atomic weight fraction of Fe and Cd has been investigated under visible light irradiation using the Methylene Blue and Rhodamine B dye in aqueous solution. The FeCd (2%):ZnO (ZFC-1) exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity in terms of rate constant as K = 0.