Manganese doping on the structural properties of TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles

In this study, manganese (Mn) doped ZnO and TiO₂ were synthesized through the co-precipitation method. The Mn doping content was set at 6 atomic percent (at.%), and the physical properties of all prepared samples were investigated using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, UV-Vis spectroscopy, and electron spin resonance measurement. The results show that the anatase structure from TiO₂ and hexagonal wurtzite from ZnO remained unchanged with the incorporation of the Mn dopant. The grain size of the corresponding TiO₂ and ZnO slightly decreased after Mn incorporation, and the band gap energies of TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles decreased after Mn doping. The electron spin resonance measurement confirmed the existence of oxygen vacancy from the TiO₂ and ZnO lattice and increased with the incorporation of the Mn ion. To investigate the potential applications of the samples, the photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated to determine the degradation of malachite green from the aqueous solutions under UV light irradiations.