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Effects of Erbium Incorporation on Structural, Surface Morphology, and Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles

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Abstract

This paper reports the chemical synthesis of MgO and Er-doped MgO nanoparticles (NPs) by the sol–gel method. Their microstructural, optical characterization and the evaluation of their photocatalytic activity are presented. The synthesized NPs were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), UV–Visible and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The effective synthesis of cubic MgO compound is attested by XRD, FTIR and electron diffraction in TEM. Er2O3 cubic secondary phase is found in the 2 and 3 wt% Er-doped MgO samples. The average size of the roundish cuboid-shaped crystallites decreases from 50 to 32 nm upon the incorporation of the rare earth element (TEM, XRD). Concomitantly, the size of flakes in which the NPs do agglomerate follows the same trend (ESEM). UV–Visible results show that the calculated band-gap energy of the NPs was in the 5.23 to 5.35 eV range. PL analysis showed that all samples have visible emissions owing to the formation of defects in the MgO band-gap. The photocatalytic activity against methylene blue dye was evaluated under UV light irradiation. The photocatalytic results showed an improvement in degradation efficiency with the addition of erbium in samples, with a maximal MB dye removal for the 3 wt% Er-doped MgO sample after 90 min irradiation. The performance is ascribed to a higher separation of the photo-generated (electron–hole) and larger surface area.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank Mr Badis Rahal and Mrs Sylvie Migot for the help in XRD, ESEM, TEM and EDX measurements.

Funding

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crystallography Laboratory, Physics Department, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Mentouri Brothers- Constantine 1 University, Route Ain El bey, 25000, Constantine, Algeria

    Imene Ameur, Boubekeur Boudine, Miloud Sebais & Ouahiba Halimi

  2. Research Center, Industrial Technologies CRTI, P. O. Box 64, 16014, Algiers, Algeria

    Ahmed reda Khantoul

  3. Université de Nantes, CNRS, Matériaux de Nantes Jean Rouxel, IMN, 44000, Nantes, Institut, France

    Valérie Brien

  4. Université de Lorraine, CNRS, 54000, Nancy, IJL, France

    David Horwat

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  1. Imene Ameur
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Contributions

All authors conceived and designed the study. IA conducted the experiments. All authors contributed to manuscript revisions. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be held accountable for the content therein. Conceptualization: BB and IA; Methodology: BB and IA; Formal analysis and investigation: All authors; Writing-original draft preparation: All authors; Writing—review and editing: All authors; Funding acquisition: All authors; Resources: All authors; Supervision: BB.

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Ameur, I., Khantoul, A.r., Boudine, B. et al. Effects of Erbium Incorporation on Structural, Surface Morphology, and Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles. J Inorg Organomet Polym 33, 30–46 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10904-022-02482-y

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