Europium decorated hierarchical TiO2 heterojunction nanostructure with enhanced UV light photocatalytic activity for degradation of toxic industrial effluent

Abstract

Europium (Eu) doped cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) surfactant assisted hierarchical TiO2 heterojunction nanostructure was synthesized by solvothermal method with ethanol as a solvent. The prepared nanostructure was subjected to various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) and Ultraviolet – diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV -DRS). The anatase phase of titania with its highly crystalline nature is confirmed by the XRD pattern. Crystallite sizes range from 4 to 10 nm according to XRD peak estimates. TEM and HRTEM studies are used to examine the prepared samples particle size and morphology. The elemental composition of the Europium (Eu) doped CTAB assisted TiO2 heterojunction nanostructure along with their corresponding band gap was estimated by EDS and UV-DRS studies respectively. The bandgap of the samples evaluated by UV–Visible spectroscopy are 3.40, 3.41 and 3.43 eV. The photocatalytic test was conducted in the presence of UV light and the amount of Congo red dye degradation increased with the time in the presence of the catalyst. After 75 min, it was discovered that the photocatalytic degradation efficiency was 97%. The photocatalytic effect depends heavily on the dispersion of the dopants.