Investigation of photo-catalytic activity of Zn1-xCoxS nanocrystals using methylene blue dye as test contaminant

Zn1-xCoxS (0.00001 <= x <= 0.1) nanocrystals have been synthesized using facile bottom-up synthesis technique chemical co-precipitation method. Crystallographic and morphological characterizations of synthesized nanomaterials have been done using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM), respectively. XRD studies confirm the formation of zinc blende crystallites having average crystallite size about 3.0 nm, which is in close agreement with the average particle size calculated from TEM micrographs. The photo-catalytic activity potential of synthesized nanocrystals has been tested using methylene blue dye as test contaminant in aqueous media. Photo-catalytic activity dependence on dopant concentration has been described in detail. Moreover, room temperature energy resolved photoluminescence spectra have been also recorded to correlate the various charge carrier recombination and interfacial charge transfer processes.