Sm-Doped Tio2 Nanoparticles With High Photocatalytic Activity For ARS Dye Under Visible Light Synthesized By Ultrasonic Assisted Sol-Gel Method

In this article series of nano crystalline Sm-doped TiO2 nano particles with various molar concentration of samarium were synthesized by modified ultrasonic assisted sol-gel method and calcined at 500°C for 2 h. The synthesized nanomaterials were characterized in details using XRD, TEM, XPS UV–vis DRS and BET analysis. The detailed photocatalytic activity results revealed that doped samples shows excellent photodegradation efficiency towards model pollutant Alizarin red-S (ARS) and almost 93% dye degrades within 120 minutes. The highest photodegradation efficiency was noticed for 1mole % samarium doped sample at 50 mgL-1 of catalyst dose. The photocatalytic activity of synthesized nano particles were also compared with commercially available ZnO and TiO2 (Degussa, P-25) photocatalyst. It was found that synthesized nano materials showed enhanced photocatalytic efficiency than commercially available semiconducting photocatalyst.