Photocatalytic activity of ZnWO4 phosphors doped with Li impurities

Zn1-xWO4:xLi(+) (x = 0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1) phosphors were synthesized by high-temperature solid-state method. The structural and luminescence properties of the samples were investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Microconfocal Raman spectrometer(MR), Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) and Photoluminescence spectra. The Li-doped ZnWO4 phosphors show photoluminescence with a broad band. Compared with the pure ZnWO4, the band gap of lithium doped samples shows a red shift measured by Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS), which could be attributed to the doping effects. Moreover, photocatalytic activity test shows that the Li-doped ZnWO4 phosphors exhibit higher catalytic activities than the pure ZnWO4 for the degradation of Rhodamine B by the UV irradiation. The result shows that the Li-doped phosphors can enhance light harvest capability to generate more electron-hole pairs, and act as a trap center by decreasing the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes.