Abstract
Holmium (Ho) substituted Dysprosium orthochromite Dy1-xHoxCrO3(x = 0, 0.5) nanoparticles were fabricated using the sol-gel method to investigate the effect of Ho substitution (at Dy-sites) on the structural, optical, dielectric and photocatalytic properties of DyCrO3 (DCO) compound. Both compounds crystallized into distorted orthorhombic structure with Pbnm space group. The lattice volume was found to decrease whereas the orthorhombic strain increased in Dy0.5Ho0.5CrO3 (DHCO) compound in comparison to DCO. This resulted in the generation of more defect states (oxygen vacancies), which influenced the optical, electrical and photocatalytic properties. Optical studies demonstrated the presence of oxygen vacancies and the bandgap was found to reduce to 2.91 eV for DHCO from 2.96 eV for DCO compound. Dielectric constant (ε ′) was smaller in DHCO compound in comparison to the pristine compound. Phase transformation occurred in both compounds around 200 οC in dielectric permittivity versus temperature behaviour under an applied a.c. electric field (frequency range from 0.160 MHz to 3 MHz). Depressed single semicircular patterns in Nyquist plots between real and imaginary parts of the impedance spectra revealed the non-Debye type relaxation mechanism in these materials. Prepared nanoparticles exhibited degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye with efficiency 54% (DCO) and 69% (DHCO) in 255 min under visible light irradiation. The degradation rate of DHCO compound was found to be 64% higher than that of the pristine compound. These studies prove the usefulness of DHCO compound as an important dielectric and photocatalytic material.
Published Version
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