Solar photocatalysts: non-metal (C, N, and S)-doped ZnO synthesized through an industrially sustainable in situ approach for environmental remediation applications

One of the biggest issues the world is currently experiencing is the scarcity of pure water due to the contamination of pure water by human activities. Highly efficient, semiconducting photocatalytic materials have great potential as future catalytic materials for facilitating the clean-up process of contaminated water. Among the many semiconductor photocatalysts, non-metal-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have attracted special attention in the scientific field for environmental remediation applications. The present paper reports an easy and viable synthesis of C-, N-, and S-based ZnO semiconductor photocatalysts through a simple heating method. The structural changes in the obtained samples were studied using XRD, TG/DTA, and FT-IR analyses, and morphological examinations were performed using TEM and SEM. The quantification of non-metal dopants was carried out using CNS and XPS analyses. The surface areas of the samples were analyzed using the BET method and the band energies of the samples were measured using UV-vis-diffuse reflectance Kubelka-Munk plots. Photoactivity studies were performed and revealed that the utilized in situ method resulted in the development of high-performance sulphur - (81.4%, k = 1.951 × 10⁻² min⁻¹), nitrogen - (78.5%, k = 2.271 × 10⁻² min⁻¹), and carbon - (67.2%, k = 1.392 × 10⁻² min⁻¹) doped ZnO photocatalysts. As revealed through XPS and UV analyses, a possible electron-transfer mechanism is suggested, wherein electronic transition occurred from different sub-bands when non-metal elements were introduced into the ZnO lattice. The study paves the way for the bulk-scale fabrication of doped nanoparticles through a simple heating method, whereby the unique combination of the present method with bandgap engineering will ultimately produce advanced non-metal-based ZnO photocatalysts that could find useful applications in sustainable industrial sectors.