Preparation, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of La-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Lanthanum (La)-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesized with different La concentrations by employing a gel combustion method using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The as-synthesized photocatalysts were characterized using various techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and UV–visible absorption spectroscopy. The average size of ZnO nanoparticles decreased from 34.3 to 10.3 nm with increasing concentrations of La, and the band gap, as evaluated by linear fitting, decreased from 3.10 to 2.78 eV. Additionally, it was found that the photocatalytic activity of doped samples, as investigated by using methyl orange dye under visible lights, improved in response to the increase in La concentration. The decomposition of methyl orange reached 85.86% after 150 min in visible light using La0.1Zn0.9O as the photocatalyst.

Cerium-Oxide-Nanoparticle-Decorated Zinc Oxide with Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Methyl Orange

“…MO degradation was measured by observing the change in the adsorption spectra of MO at 464 nm, as shown in Figure 7. The percentage of MO photodegradation was calculated using the formula [29];…”

“…In recent years, rare-earth (RE) metals have been used as dopants in RE/ZnO; these include Er [21,22], Eu [23][24][25], Nd [26,27], Tm [28], and La [29][30][31]. Suwanboon et al synthesized La-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (La/ZnO NPs) using a precipitation and mechanical milling technique, and they investigated the blue-light-fluorescent-lamp-driven photodegradation activity of methyl blue.…”

Synthesis and characterization of Zn doped WO3 nanoparticles: photocatalytic, antifungal and antibacterial activities evaluation

“…The photocatalytic properties of ZnO may vary with particle size, morphology, and crystallinity of the materials. Modifications such as thermal treatment and/or doping the materials with other metals ions could enhance photocatalytic activity through limiting the recombination of electron-hole pairs and improving the absorption of light [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Under the current scenario of water pollution [48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55], there is need to prepare and utilized catalysts active under solar light to enhanced the cost effectiveness of catalytic process [56].…”

The Formation of Perovskite during the Combustion of an Energy-Rich Glycine–Nitrate Precursor

“…Among them, catalysis has been a significant area where they find application both as the support materials and the active components in the gas-phase and liquid-phase reactions of complete and partial oxidation, hydrogenation, organic synthesis, photochemical conversions, and others [8,17,[21][22][23]. The methods for producing complex oxides by combustion of organometallic precursors are rather similar [3,7,8,[24][25][26]. First, a solution of metal nitrates and an organic material (amino acids, urea, citric acid, ethylene glycol, saccharose, etc.)…”