Fabrication of novel Nd2O3/ZnO-GO nanocomposite: An efficient photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants

In the present work, the hydrothermally synthesized Nd2O3/ZnO-GO nanoparticles were investigated for structural, optical properties and also explain along with the photocatalytic activity. The nanocomposites Nd2O3/ZnO-GO were analyzed by various characterization techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), diffuse reflectance UV-vis. spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show PXRD pattern indicates that the crystalloid structure for the synthesis nanocomposites, the FTIR analysis of synthesized nanoparticles exhibits the Zn/Nd-O bands observed at 488 cm(-1). The SEM images show the morphology of Nd2O3/ZnO-GO was the layer with clustered like microsponge structure. To add Nd2O3(NO) the band gap energy value for prepared nanocomposites are also decreased with compared to the undoped ZnO. The Nd2O3/ZnO-GO nanoparticles also showed improved photocatalytic behavior compared to the undoped Nd2O3 and ZnO. The photocatalytic efficiency of the Nd2O3/ZnO-GO nanocomposites was investigated by the degradation of CIP (98.7%) and MB (99.2%) dye under UV- light irradiation at 60 min. & 35 min. The as-synthesized Nd2O3/ZnO-GO nanocomposite shows an excellent photocatalytic activity as compared with the previous reports of different nanocomposite materials. The catalyst dose, catalyst reusability of the major influential factors was studied. The results of reusability of the catalyst are stable up to 6th run. The active species trapping experiments (ethanol, triethanolamine, benzoquinone, and isopropyl alcohol) on the degradation efficiency was studied. The results show that the electrons are the main contributors to the degradation process of CIP, furthermore, the holes, O-center dot(2-) and (OH)-O-center dot are also crucially influenced the photocatalytic degradation process of CIP.