ZnxCo3-xO4 Hydrothermally Mesoporous Nanoparticles (ZCH): Structure, Optical, and Surface Analysis

In this research, cobalt oxide solid solution nanoparticles with different molar percentages of zinc content (2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 30 mol %) were synthesized through hydrothermal method. Cobalt nitrate and zinc nitrate were used as the sources of cobalt oxide and zinc contents in this research. In order to investigate the structural properties, the chemical state, optical, photocatalytic properties as well as the microstructure of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized based on the XRD, BET-BJH, UV-Vis, XPS, TEM, and FESEM analyzes. The results of the X-ray phase analysis showed that addition of this content to the structure of cobalt oxide led to a decrease in the crystal size. The crystallite sizes of the pure and doped samples were about 9.48 nm and about 8.8 nm, respectively. According to the FESEM images, the particle size of the pure sample was in the range of 20-40 nm, and that of the doped ZCH-300 sample (10 % Zn) in the range of 20-30 nm. The specific surface areas (BET) of the pure sample and the sample with 10 % zinc were about 75 m2/g and 92 m2/g, respectively. Compared to the pure CH nanoparticles Doped Co3O4 (CH), mesoporous nanoparticles were observed to have the highest photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic analysis results showed that the highest degradation percentage of the solution, i.e., 10.6 (ηZCH-300 = 10.6 %), was obtained in the presence of the doped sample with zinc cation (10 % Zn).