The photocatalytic activity of sprayed Zn1 − xMgxO thin films

ZnO has received much attention in the degradation and complete mineralization of environmental pollutants. For the purpose of increasing the photocatalytic efficiency of ZnO, Mg was doped into ZnO thin films. xMgxO thin films were prepared by spray pyrolysis method on glass substrates. The deposition temperature was 500 °C. Mg concentration was varied in the range of 0.0 to 0.3 in intervals of 0.05. The pure ZnO films were polycrystalline with preferred orientation (100). Zn1 − xMgxO becomes amorphous with increasing Mg concentration. The optical band gap of Zn1 − xMgxO changes from 3.26 to 3.59 eV with increasing Mg content. Also, the photocatalytic activity increased with Mg, and the film with x = 0.3 showed the best result.