Photocatalytic performance of nitrogen doped ZnO structures supported on graphene oxide for MB degradation

Abstract In the present work, the photocatalytic efficiency of a novel system based on ZnO doped with nitrogen (ZT) and supported on graphene oxide (GO) is investigated. ZnO synthesis and their N doping were carried out in a microwave reactor using thiourea as nitrogen source, while the GO was prepared through a variation of the Hummers' method. Structural, morphological and photochemical characterization of the developed material was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The compounds were used to photodegrade the methylene blue molecule, which confirms the efficiency of nitrogen doped supported system compared to pristine ZnO. The degradation percentage of MB under UV energy using nitrogen-doped ZnO/GO, in a time of 35 min, reached 98% degradation; while using visible light 93% of degradation was reached.