<p>Recently, number of efforts have been carried out to advance the catalytic properties of ZnO semiconductor by multi-doping strategy. In this study, novel (Y, Cr, Mn) and (Y, Cr, Co) tri-doped ZnO photocatalysts were synthesized by a simple chemical coprecipitation method. Single-crystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure was identified for pure and tri-doped ZnO compositions. High resolution XPS analysis of (Y, Cr, Mn) tri-doped ZnO powder confirmed that Zn, Y and Cr constituents hold + 2, + 3 and + 3 oxidation states while the Mn dopant has mixed valence oxidation states including Mn²⁺, Mn³⁺ and Mn⁴⁺ cations. The typical quasi-spherical like structure was seen from the TEM image of pure ZnO. The TEM of crystalline (Y, Cr, Mn) modified ZnO sample shows two types of particles including large rods particles and fine spherical particles. The band gap energy of ZnO sample was red shifted due to the tri-doping by (Y, Cr, Mn) ions while the incorporation of (Y, Cr, Co) leads to blue shifted. The photocatalytic results verified a high photodegradation performance of (Y, Cr, Mn) tri-doped ZnO catalyst with decolorization efficiency of 96–97% (25–35 min) and mineralization activity above 95% (50–60 min). Compared to mono-doping technique, this study illustrates that the tri-doping process is excellent strategy to boost the photocatalytic performance of ZnO for wastewater treatment.</p>