Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of 4-nitrophenol using polyacrylamide assisted Ce-doped YMnO3 nanoparticles

Abstract

This research article mainly reports on the precise structural, optical, and photocatalytic properties of cerium (Ce)-substituted yttrium manganite (YMnO3) nanoparticles synthesized by the polyacrylamide gel method. The characteristics of YMnO3 were investigated by the substitution of Ce into the Y site at various molar percentages. The Raman and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses confirmed the pure phase of hexagonal YMnO3, supported by the Rietveld refinement. The microstructural studies indicate inhomogeneous and irregular particle distribution. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show the presence of two ionic states of Mn and Ce along with Y3+ state and oxygen vacancies. Extensive optical exploration using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and UV–Vis–NIR analysis indicates that the intensity of absorption peak increases in the visible region, while the bandgap decreases from 1.42 to 1.30 eV with the Ce ion doping (5 mol%–15 mol%). Photocatalytic properties of the polycrystalline nanoparticles were investigated by degradation of the pollutant 4-nitrophenol. The process of amplified photocatalysis process was elucidated by the lowered bandgap and rate of charge carrier recombination. It can be conjugated from this study that the synthesized nanoparticles may be employed as highly efficient (92.8%) visible light-triggered photocatalysts in a variety of real-world applications.