Issue 32, 2022

Visible light-driven photocatalytic activity of wide band gap ATiO3 (A = Sr, Zn and Cd) perovskites by lanthanide doping and the formation of a mesoporous heterostructure with ZnS QDs

Abstract

Charge carrier recombination and wide band gap energy are still the main challenges in the visible-light-driven photocatalytic applications of titanate perovskites, ATiO3. Herein, three strategies are rationally used to achieve a titanate-based photocatalyst with high photocatalytic performance under visible light. In the first step, SrTiO3, ZnTiO3, and CdTiO3 perovskites were synthesized and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) and bisphenol A (BPA). Then, a dysprosium cation (Dy3+) was doped into an ATiO3 crystalline lattice. Systematic investigations indicate that Dy doping in SrTiO3 and CdTiO3 extends the ligand to metal charge transfer absorption edge to visible wavelengths leading to the activation of doped perovskites under visible light. Higher visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance (73.29% for MB and 52.57% for BPA) and higher total organic carbon (TOC) removal (59.20% for MB and 39.53% for BPA) have been achieved by Dy doped CdTiO3 compared to other photocatalysts. Finally, we prepared a Dy-CdTP/ZnS QD mesoporous type-II heterostructure by the in situ growth of ZnS QDs on a flower-like Dy-CdTP. This design accelerates the separation and transfer of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. The surface area of the Dy-CdTP/ZnS QD heterostructure was ∼11.6 times greater than that of Dy-CdTP, offering a large surface area for the adsorption of organics, and abundant active sites for photocatalytic degradation. Taking advantage of the large surface area and considerable suppressing of the charge carrier recombination, the optimized Dy-CdTP(0.6)/ZnS QD photocatalyst exhibits excellent and stable performance for the degradation of MB (98.25%) and BPA (89.12%) with their considerable mineralization under visible light.

Graphical abstract: Visible light-driven photocatalytic activity of wide band gap ATiO3 (A = Sr, Zn and Cd) perovskites by lanthanide doping and the formation of a mesoporous heterostructure with ZnS QDs

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Jun 2022
Accepted
18 Jul 2022
First published
20 Jul 2022

Dalton Trans., 2022,51, 12198-12212

Visible light-driven photocatalytic activity of wide band gap ATiO3 (A = Sr, Zn and Cd) perovskites by lanthanide doping and the formation of a mesoporous heterostructure with ZnS QDs

E. Zehtab-Lotfi, A. R. Amani-Ghadim and B. Soltani, Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 12198 DOI: 10.1039/D2DT01751B

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements