Unraveling the effect of Cu doping on the structural and morphological properties and photocatalytic activity of ZrO2

Pristine ZrO2 and doped with different concentrations of Copper (0-7 %) were synthesized using a sol-gel combustion route. Several advanced techniques like XRD, EDX, TEM, XPS, P.L., and UV-vis spectrophotometer have characterized the compositions. The XRD proved that all peaks matched with a tetragonal phase of ZrO2 without any impurities of other phases. An average crystallite size rises from 20 to 55 nm by increasing the concentrations of Copper. The elemental analysis was examined by EDX and confirmed the presence of Cooper, Zirconium, and Oxygen. The red shift was observed due to a decrease in the bandgap (5.5-4.01 eV) with increasing the Cu concentrations. From the analysis of photocatalysis of pure ZrO2 and different concentrations of Cu-doped ZrO2 for M.B., RHB, and mix of them. The increase in doping of Cu led to enhancing the performance of the removing MB from 35 to 80 %, however, the RHB degradation was from 42 to 81 % while the mix of M.B. and RHB reached 85 % with 7 % Cu-doping ZrO2.