Synthesis of Niobium Doped ZnO Nanoparticles by Electrochemical Method: Characterization, Photodegradation of Indigo Carmine Dye and Antibacterial Study

Niobium doped Zincoxide nanoparticles has been synthesized through electrochemical method and characterized by UV-Visible spectroscopy, IR Spectroscopy, SEM, XRD, ICPMS and EDAX data. The UV-Visible spectroscopy result reveals that the band gap energy of ZnO/Nb2O5 nanoparticles to be 3.8 eV. The XRD results show that the crystallite size is to be 31.9 nm. The ICPMS data indicate the presence of 3,3461,328 counts of 93 Nb and 577,906,390 counts of 66 Zn. An improvement in the photocatalytic degradation of Indigocarmine dye (IC) in comparison to commercially available pure ZnO was observed. The photodegradation efficiency for ZnO/Nb2O5 and ZnO were found to be 97.4% and 52.1% respectively. The enhancement in photocatalytic activity of ZnO/ Nb2O5 was ascribed to the extended light absorption range and suppression of electron hole pair recombination upon Nb loading. The antibacterial activity of ZnO/Nb2O5 nanoparticles was investigated. These particles were shown to have an effective bactericide.