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Hydrothermal synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity of Na0.5Gd0.5MoO4

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Abstract

Sodium gadolinium molybdate (Na0.5Gd0.5MoO4) powder as a new photocatalyst was prepared using GdCl3·6H2O, H2NCSNH2 and Na2MoO4·2H2O as raw materials by hydrothermal approach. The as-synthesized products were characterized with XRD, FESEM, XPS, Raman, FTIR, BET surface area analysis, UV–Vis absorption spectra and PL spectroscopy, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of Na0.5Gd0.5MoO4 catalysts was assessed using the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) at room temperature under visible light. The Na0.5Gd0.5MoO4 catalyst exhibited enhanced photoability as the Gd3+ ions increase. The excellent photocatalytic performance for photocatalysts arise from the separation and migration of the electron–holes pairs in the structure and the narrow band gap energies resulting in the visible absorption ability’s improvement. Additionally, the h+ was discovered to be the most significant reactive group for RhB photodegradation and the possible photocatalytic mechanism was also devised.

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Acknowledgements

The work is financially supported by Yunan Ten Thousand Talents Plan Young & Elite Talents Project. Special funds are provided for guiding local scientific and technological development by the central government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Complex Nonferrous Metal Resources Clear Utilization, National Engineering Laboratory for Vacuum Metallurgy, Key Laboratory for Nonferrous Vacuum Metallurgy of Yunnan Province, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Xuquan Wang, Yang Li, Fei Wang, Baoqiang Xu, Bin Yang & Yang Tian

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Wang, X., Li, Y., Wang, F. et al. Hydrothermal synthesis and enhanced photocatalytic activity of Na0.5Gd0.5MoO4. J Mater Sci 56, 16612–16622 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06320-3

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