Bifunctional Applications of Facile Mg-doped ZnO Nanoparticles Fabricated Via Co-precipitation Technique

Zn_1−xMg_xO nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by co-precipitation technique. The prepared NPs were investigated by XRD, FTIR, SEM with EDAX, XPS, UV–Vis and PL spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction revealed the occurrence of crystalline nature and hexagonal wurtzite structure. FTIR confirmed that bands appearing around 507–519 cm⁻¹ relates to ZnO and 853–856 cm⁻¹ for MgO. SEM revealed that the NPs had hexagonal wurtzite structure with a spherical shape and EDAX confirmed that Zn, Mg and O elements were present in the sample. In accordance with XRD, XPS verified that Mg²⁺ had assimilated into the ZnO lattice. Blueshift and the band gap increased from 3.28 to 3.35 eV were observed in optical investigation. UV emission peak blueshifts from 396 to 392 nm, according to photoluminescence (PL) spectra. Mg-doped ZnO NPs (x = 0.6) showed maximum degradation of 96% for Methylene blue dye under UV–Vis irradiation. Using the agar diffusion method, antibacterial studies were carried out for both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.