Preparation, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity studies of Ag+, Cu2+ and Sn2+-doped Li2GeTeO6 under Visible Light Irradiation

Doping of cations into wide bandgap semiconductors is an effective method of increasing photocatalytic activity. This work aims to find out how dopant ions like Ag⁺, Cu²⁺ and Sn²⁺ affect the structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of Li₂GeTeO₆. The parent Li₂GeTeO₆ (LGTO) was synthesized by conventional solid-state method, whereas the Ag⁺, Cu²⁺ and Sn²⁺-doped Li₂GeTeO₆ were prepared by a simplistic ion-exchange method. Techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDS, N₂ adsorption-desorption analysis, UV-Vis DRS, XPS, and PL were employed to examine the physico-chemical properties of the as-prepared materials and their photocatalytic activities on the degradation of methyl violet (MV) under visible light irradiation. The acquired photocatalytic activity results revealed that all doped samples displayed enhanced photocatalytic performance compar