Experimentally Designed Natural Light Induced Photocatalytic Performance of Nanostructured Eu2Ce2O7 Synthesized by a Facile Solid State Method in Removal of Environmental Pollutant Malachite Green (MG)

Abstract

Nanopowders of Eu2Ce2O7 were synthesized via solid-state reactions between Eu2O3 and (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6 raw materials at stoichiometric 1:1 Eu/Ce molar ratio at 800 °C (S1), 900 °C (S2), 1000 °C (S3) for 8 h and 1000 °C for 10 h (S4). The synthesized materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) technique. Structural analyses were performed by FullProf program employing profile matching with constant scale factors. The results showed that the patterns had a main Eu2Ce2O7 structure with a space group of $${\text{Fm}}\overline{3}{\text{m}}$$ . FESEM images showed that the synthesized Eu2Ce2O7 particles had mono-shaped sphere morphologies. Ultraviolet–visible spectra showed that the nanostructured Eu2Ce2O7 powders possessed strong light absorption properties in the ultraviolet–visible light region. The direct optical band gap energies were 3.08 eV (S1), 3.05 eV (S2), 2.91 eV (S3) and 2.74 eV (S4). Photocatalytic performance of the synthesized nanomaterials was investigated for the degradation of pollutant Malachite Green (4-{[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl](phenyl)methylidene}-N'N-dimethylcyclohexa-25-dien-1-iminium chloride) (MG) in aqueous solution under solar light condition. The optimum conditions were modeled and obtained by design expert software for S1 which were 0.4 ml H2O2, 20 mg catalyst and 60 min for the removal of 60 ml of 50 ppm MG solutions. The degradation yield in these conditions was 93% for (S1).