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Journal of Polymer & Composites Review Article Special issue

Improved Photocatalytic Activity for Removal of Methylene Blue Dye from Aqueous Solutions with La2O3-Modified Ceria Heterostructured Binary Oxide Nanocomposite Particles

  1. Atikur Rahman Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hazratbal, Srinagar
  2. Manoj Kumar Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Hazratbal, Srinagar

Abstract

The current study aimed to examine the photocatalytic efficacy of a bimetallic CeO2-La2O3 hetero-NC in comparison to monometallic CeO2 and La2O3 nanoparticles (NPs), utilizing Methylene Blue (MB)as pollutant sample under natural solar and UV irradiation. The coprecipitation method was utilized to produce a bimetallic CeO2-La2O3 hetero-NC. Following this, the nanostructures underwent characterization through various techniques including FT-IR, FE-SEM, XRD, UV Vis- DRS, Raman, and Photoluminescence spectroscopy. The catalytic activity of the bimetallic CeO2-La2O3 hetero-NC is superior and follows pseudo-first-order kinetics. In addition, the photocatalytic mechanism has been briefly explained. The bimetallic CeO2-La2O3 hetero-NC exhibits higher photocatalytic activity 93% against MB than pure CeO2 and La2O3 due to the formation of p-n heterostructures. In 100 min under UV conditions, CeO2 degraded 78% of MB, while La2O3 only degraded 58%. Similarly, under solar irradiation, CeO2-La2O3 NC demonstrated 96% effectiveness in 180 minutes when compared to pure metal oxide nanoparticles. The findings suggest that the bimetallic CeO2-La2O3 hetero-NC has desirable structural and optical properties, making it a promising material for optoelectronic and photocatalytic applications.

Keywords

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