Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity of Rare Earth Metal (Nd and Gd) doped ZnO Nanostructures

Presence of harmful organic pollutants in wastewater effluents causes serious environmental problems and therefore purification of this contaminated water by a cost effective treatment method is one of the most important issue which is in urgent need of scientific research. One such promising treatment technique uses semiconductor photocatalyst for the reduction of recalcitrant pollutants in water. In the present work, rare earth metals (Nd and Gd) doped ZnO nanostructured photocatalyst have been synthesized by wet chemical method. The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The XRD results showed that the prepared samples were well crystalline with hexagonal Wurtzite structure. The results of EDS revealed that rare earth elements were doped into ZnO structure. The effect of rare earth dopant on morphology and photocatalytic degradation properties of the prepared samples were studied and discussed. The results revealed that the rare earth metal doped ZnO samples showed enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of methylene blue dye than pure nano ZnO photocatalyst.