An Investigation of Strontium Doped Erbium Oxide Nanoparticles for Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Pollutants in Aqueous Solution
Abstract A simple wet impregnation approach had been used to the successful preparation of different weight percentages of strontium/niobium doped Er2O3 nanoparticles. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and UV-visible (UV) spectroscopy was used to analyze the samples as they were prepared. With Sr and Nb doping at Er2O3 nanoparticles, the XRD patterns intensity was shifted, and its positioning was also shifted as weight percentages of doped were increased. Similarly, the lattice d spacing values were also decreased. According to HR-TEM images, Er2O3 seems to have a two-dimensional hexagonal nanoplate-like structure as well as being a few nm in size. The photocatalytic activities of pristine and Sr/Nb doped samples were evaluated against the methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (Rh B) dyes under UV-visible light irradiation. Within seventy-five minutes of UV-Visible light irradiation, the five-weight percentage of Sr doped Er2O3 nanoparticles shows significantly enhanced photocatalytic degradation efficiency against Rh B dye. The synergistic effect of the strong metal-support interaction between the Sr and Er2O3 nanoparticles could be attributed to the improved photocatalytic activity of the prepared samples. The cyclic stability and radical trapping experiments were also investigated against the same reaction conditions.