Photocatalytic Activity of Cu²⁺-Grafted Metal-Doped ZnO Photocatalysts Under Visible-Light Irradiation

抄録

Metal ions doping into ZnO formed different energy states such as shallow, middle, or deep impurity states between the band gap and these states induce the visible-light absorption. M_xZn_1−xO without co-catalyst showed negligible visible-light activity. Surprisingly, Cu²⁺-modification induced visible-light activity over M_xZn_1−xO and they became an active visible-light photocatalyst. Experimental results conclude that visible-light-activities strongly depend on their reduction potentials of dopants' impurity states.