Fabrication and enhanced UV-light photocatalytic performance of Mn2O3/Dy2O3 nanocomposites

Several lines of research have been devoted to the study of nanomaterials that can present interesting physicochemical properties, different from those of the bulk material and which can be used in various fields of science such as photocatalysis. In this context, the photocatalytic decolorization of methylene blue (MB) dye of the Mn2O3/Dy2O3 (Dy/Mn) nanocomposites has been successfully explored by various mass ratios of Mn2O3. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that the synthesized Dy/Mn nanocomposites have a tetragonal structure and the weak broadening of the diffraction peaks related due to the small sizes of the crystallites. Nonetheless, the optical properties of Dy/Mn nanocomposites were varied from 3.7 to 4.6 eV. The photoluminescence spectroscopy of the Dy/Mn composites shows the apparition of the peaks at 376 and 405 nm. In addition, it was observed that Dy/Mn_1 composite exhibits the important photocatalytic degradation efficiency compared to other nanocomposites.