Green synthesis and characterization of Pr3+:CaWO4 nanostructures in the presence of maltose as a capping agent for photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B

Abstract

In this work, Pr3+ doped CaWO4 nanostructures have been synthesized via ultrasound-assisted precipitation route. The effect of various capping agent such as glucose, maltose, fructose and lactose were investigated to reach optimum condition. The as-prepared nanostructures were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis, X-ray-diffraction, UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy techniques. This catalytic systems illustrated high activity in the photodegradation of rhodamine B as a cationic dye in a liquid phase for 90 min under UV irradiation. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of nanostructures with maltose as a capping agent is clearly better than another capping agent to degradation of dye. Alternatively, our results indicated that Pr3+ ions doping on CaWO4 nanoparticles significantly improved photocatalytic activity.