In this work, palladium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticle photocatalysts with various amounts of palladium are prepared through a solution combustion method. Their crystal structure, optical, morphological, and thermal properties are examined by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), UV-vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively. The XRD results demonstrate that palladium doping does not induce any secondary phases related to metallic palladium or palladium oxides. The inclusion of palladium with ZnO decreases the bandgap value and the lowest bandgap value of 3.19 eV is evaluated for the 3% palladium-doped ZnO photocatalyst. The Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis reveals the characteristic stretching vibrations of ZnO at 460 cm −1 in all the synthesized photocatalysts. Palladium doping induces thermal stability enhancement in the synthesized photocatalysts. The optimal palladium doping enhances the photocatalytic degradation efficiency significantly against methylene blue (MB) dye. A plausible mechanism is also discussed for photocatalytic degradation enhancement due to palladium doping.

Herein, pure ZnO and Pd (3.0wt %) doped Zno nanoparticles was synthesized using simple chemical Combustion method. The incorporation of Pd with ZnO shows the excelled photocatalytic activity due to its high crystalline nanostructure. The X-ray diffraction spectrum endorsed that Pd-doped ZnO sintered at a temperature of 500 °C has Zincite-type natured material. The SEM analysis depicts the Pd-doped ZnO composite has a spherical sized particle range from 47nm and 70 nm respectively. From UV-visible absorption spectrum it is observed that synthesized zinc oxide and Pd doped ZnO composite has a band gap of 3.4 eV and 3.2 eV. In this context, Pd-doped ZnO act as an efficient UV light active photocatalyst results in the degradation of Mb dye within 45 min. Due to the high crystallinity of Pd-doped ZnO nanoparticle shows high photocatalytic activity than pure ZnO nanoparticles. Thus our findings emphasis that the Pd-doped ZnO nanoparticle would be the most proficient candidate for the removal of water contamination.