Facile wet chemical synthesis and characterization of zinc doped gadolinium oxide nanoparticles for enhanced photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye under illumination of UV light

Thaninki, Leena Vinolia; Nesaraj, Arputharaj Samson; Arunkumar, Manasai

doi:10.30495/ijc.2022.1948621.1904

Original Article

Facile wet chemical synthesis and characterization of zinc doped gadolinium oxide nanoparticles for enhanced photodegradation of Rhodamine B dye under illumination of UV light

Authors

Department of Applied Chemistry, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (Deemed to be University), Karunya Nagar, Coimbatore - 641114, Tamil Nadu, India
Department of Chemistry, CMR Technical Campus, Kandlakoya, Hyderabad – 501 401, Telengana, India
Department of Chemistry, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (Deemed to be University), Krishnankoil – 626126, Tamil Nadu, India
Department of Applied Chemistry, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (Deemed to be University), Karunya Nagar, Coimbatore - 641114, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

In this study, we discuss the wet chemical synthesis and experimental analysis of zinc doped Gd₂O₃(Gd_2-xZn_xO_3-δ) nanoparticles where, x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5. The cubic crystalline structure is derived from XRD results and the existence of metal-oxide bond has been confirmed from FTIR studies. According to SEM and PSA analysis, the produced nanoparticles are found to be of nano size. The EDX data verified the presence of Gd, Zn, and O in the samples. Based on UV-visible spectroscopy, the band gap and λ_max values were computed. In an aqueous medium and under UV light irradiation, the photodegradation of Rhodamine B over Zn doped Gd₂O₃ nanoparticles was studied. It was observed that Gd_1.50Zn_0.50O_3-δhas exhibited 82% of photo-degradation of the dye solution which further increased to 96% because of increasing the catalyst loading. The effect of pH and the concentration of the dye are also reported. According to the kinetic analysis, the photocatalysis process followed a pseudo-first-order kinetic model. A radical scavenger technique was used to further examine and identify the function of photoactive species.

Highlights

Gd_2-xZn_xO_3-δ (where x= where x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) nanoparticles were prepared by simple one pot wet chemical precipitation method.
Their physical characteristics were analyzed by XRD, FTIR, particle size analysis, SEM, EDAX, UV and PL studies.
The photocatalytic degradation properties of Rhodamine B dye using Gd_2-xZn_xO_3-δ based nanophotocatalysts were studied and reported.
It was observed that Gd₅₀Zn_0.50O_3-δhas shown 82% degradation efficiency of the dye solution which was further increased to 96% with increase in the catalyst loading.