Structural, morphological, and optical properties of Zn
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia; Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Werabe University, Ethiopia
- 2Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia
- 3Beijing Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Composites, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China; Corresponding authors.
- 4Department of Physics, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia; Corresponding authors.
Abstract
Spinel zinc orthotitanate (Zn 2 TiO 4 ) has attracted considerable attention as a promising semiconductor photocatalyst. Zn 2 TiO 4 and Zn 1.85 M 0.15 TiO 4 (M = Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , and Mg 2+ ) were synthesized via a two-step solid-state reaction method. Their structural, morphological, optical, and photocatalytic properties were systematically examined to evaluate the influence of metal-ion doping. XRD spectroscopy confirmed that all the prepared materials formed a cubic structure with the impurity of ZnO. The crystallite sizes of the prepared materials were in the nanometer range (40.41–45.65 nm). Morphological FESEM analysis revealed spherical-shaped particles, while EDS analysis confirmed the presence and homogeneous distribution of the constituent elements. HRTEM analysis further verified the crystalline nature of the materials through clear lattice fringes and corresponding d-spacing values. FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of functional groups associated with Zn-O and Ti-O bonding. The synthesized materials exhibited optical activity in the ultraviolet region. UV–Vis analysis demonstrated that metal-ion incorporation enhanced visible-light absorption and reduced the optical band gap energy from 3.22 eV for pristine Zn 2 TiO 4 to 2.70 eV for Co-doped Zn 2 TiO 4 . Photoluminescence analysis indicated that doping influenced the recombination behavior of photogenerated charge carriers. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was tested using MB dye under UV irradiation. The highest degradation efficiency was 92.23%, and this was achieved for the sample Zn 1.85 Ni 0.15 TiO 4 , confirming that doped Zn 2 TiO 4 is a promising photocatalyst for environmental remediation applications.
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BibTeX
@article{nigussie2026structural,
title = {{Structural, morphological, and optical properties of Zn}},
author = {Muluken Tadesse Nigussie and Sintayhu Mekonen and Yong Liu and Paulos Taddesse},
journal = {Results in Physics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.rinp.2026.108773},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2026.108773},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Structural, morphological, and optical properties of Zn
AU - Muluken Tadesse Nigussie
AU - Sintayhu Mekonen
AU - Yong Liu
AU - Paulos Taddesse
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Results in Physics
DO - 10.1016/j.rinp.2026.108773
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2026.108773
AB - Spinel zinc orthotitanate (Zn 2 TiO 4 ) has attracted considerable attention as a promising semiconductor photocatalyst. Zn 2 TiO 4 and Zn 1.85 M 0.15 TiO 4 (M = Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ , Co 2+ , and Mg 2+ ) were synthesized via a two-step solid-state reaction method. Their structural, morphological, optical, and photocatalytic properties were systematically examined to evaluate the influence of metal-ion doping. XRD spectroscopy confirmed that all the prepared materials formed a cubic structure with the impurity of ZnO. The crystallite sizes of the prepared materials were in the nanometer range (40.41–45.65 nm). Morphological FESEM analysis revealed spherical-shaped particles, while EDS analysis confirmed the presence and homogeneous distribution of the constituent elements. HRTEM analysis further verified the crystalline nature of the materials through clear lattice fringes and corresponding d-spacing values. FTIR analysis confirmed the presence of functional groups associated with Zn-O and Ti-O bonding. The synthesized materials exhibited optical activity in the ultraviolet region. UV–Vis analysis demonstrated that metal-ion incorporation enhanced visible-light absorption and reduced the optical band gap energy from 3.22 eV for pristine Zn 2 TiO 4 to 2.70 eV for Co-doped Zn 2 TiO 4 . Photoluminescence analysis indicated that doping influenced the recombination behavior of photogenerated charge carriers. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was tested using MB dye under UV irradiation. The highest degradation efficiency was 92.23%, and this was achieved for the sample Zn 1.85 Ni 0.15 TiO 4 , confirming that doped Zn 2 TiO 4 is a promising photocatalyst for environmental remediation applications.
SN - 2211-3797
ER -