Boosting the light-harvesting and surface properties of inorganic ceramic to tune its bactericidal and organic dye mineralization activities

Abstract This work presented a simple co-precipitation technique for forming nanostructured, porous, visible light-active, highly conductive, and Zn-doped copper oxide (ZCO). The combine effects of doping, structural modification, and nanoscience enable to form a novel catalyst with integrated features. Physicochemical studies confirm the coexistence of all desired features in the ZCO photocatalyst. Dye-mineralization and antimicrobial capabilities of the formed photocatalysts were evaluated in detail and compared with those of their undoped counterpart, copper oxide (CO). The antimicrobial activities of the ZCO photocatalyst, tested against E. coli (a negative strain) and S. aureus (a negative strain), were superior to those of CO and comparable to those of commercially available drugs. Furthermore, ZCO photocatalysts eliminate the methyl blue dye using simple adsorption and mineralization processes at a greater extent and rate than CO photocatalyst. More precisely, the ZCO photocatalyst mineralizes 80.61% of MB under visible light irradiation. Under identical circumstances, the CO photocatalyst mineralizes just 60.10% of MB. The amplified photoactivity of the ZCO photocatalyst may be endorsed to its larger surface area (56.5 m 2 g − 1 ) and visible-light prompted bandgap (1.59 eV), which not only enhance the dye adsorption probability but also improved the light-harvesting capabilities. This study opens new avenues for developing metal-substituted metal oxide porous nanostructures for environmental and ecological protection.