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Rare-earth doping engineering in nanostructured ZnO: a new type of eco-friendly photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic characteristics

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Abstract

Aiming at developing practical and eco-friendly photocatalyst with the best photocatalytic performance for dye wastewater treatment, we demonstrated the new type of rose-like ZnO photocatalysts doped with 0–2 mol% rare-earth element in the present work, i.e., lanthanum (La). A facile synthesis of nanostructured La–ZnO by chemical solution deposition method with low cost and tailored photocatalytic performance is reported. The corresponding structures, morphologies, and chemical and photocatalytic characteristics are complementarily investigated by XRD, Raman, SEM, TEM, XPS, PL, and UV–Vis spectroscopic techniques. The La ions with trivalent state are successfully doped into the ZnO host. Each petal of rose-like nanostructured La–ZnO is composed of numerous nanoparticles in diameter of 15–25 nm attached on surface in order. The degradation efficiency of rhodamin B over La–ZnO photocatalysts increases up to the doping level of 1.5 mol% and decreases at higher dopant contents. The La doping results in a slight red shift in the absorption spectra edge and, consequently, boosts up the light absorption efficiency of the photocatalysts. Among the developed photocatalysts, 1.5 mol% La-doped ZnO exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamin B, and this composition is poised as the best combination of photocatalytic performance and production cost showing the promise as a new platform of industrial level available photocatalysts for dye wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51608226, 21776110, 61405072, 11404137), Program for the Development of Science and Technology of Jilin Province (Item No. 20180101202JC), Program for Science and Technology of Education Department of Jilin Province (Item No. JJKH20170371KJ), and Program for the Development of Science and Technology of Siping City (Item No. 2015065).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, Siping, 136000, People’s Republic of China

    Yue Fang, Jihui Lang, Jiaying Wang, Qiang Han, Zhe Zhang, Qi Zhang & Jinghai Yang

  2. United Microelect Corp. Ltd., 3 Pasir Ris Dr 12, Singapore, 519528, Singapore

    Scott Guozhong Xing

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  1. Yue Fang
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Correspondence to Jihui Lang or Scott Guozhong Xing.

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Fang, Y., Lang, J., Wang, J. et al. Rare-earth doping engineering in nanostructured ZnO: a new type of eco-friendly photocatalyst with enhanced photocatalytic characteristics. Appl. Phys. A 124, 605 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-018-2044-0

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