Recently, water pollution caused by dyes and organic pollutants (such as methyl orange and methylene blue) has been produced through industrial textiles, leather, pharmacy, etc., which has become a serious ecological issue. [1][2][3] Consequently, several technologies, such as chemical precipitation, adsorption, and membrane, have been applied to treat these toxic organic contaminants from water. 4-6 Among these used methods, photocatalysis has attracted extensive attention due to the unique advantages such as low energy consumption, easy fabrication, repeatable process, high removal efficiency, and limited chemical requirement. 7 In the photocatalysis process, sunlight is used as a source of energy; the process begins with absorbing a photon and continues by generating electrons and holes. The electron and holes pairs react with oxygen, water, and produce active radicals, which could destroy organic pollution in water. 8,9 That is

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Nanocrystalline tetragonal Sc 2 O 3 (3.5 mol%) and Y 2 O 3 (0.5 mol%) doped zirconia (SYDZ and YSZ) solid solutions were prepared by modified and classic Pechini method, respectively. In this approach, zirconium oxynitrate, scandium and yttrium nitrate, citric acid (CA) and ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (EGM) were used as the sources of Zr 4+ , Sc 3+ , Y 3+ , and the chelating and solvent agents, respectively. The SYDZ nanocrystals, synthesized with a 1Zr 4+ : 4EGM : 4CA mole ratio in acidic medium (pH y1) at 700 uC, had a smaller particle size (15 ¡ 3 nm) than YSZ synthesized with the classic Pechini method. Also, our optimized synthesis was applied to a large scale elaboration by increasing the quantity of precursors. Finally, The optical properties of SYDZ nanocrystals were also investigated by UV-vis spectroscopy.