Experimentally Designed Natural Light Induced Photocatalytic Performance of Nanostructured Eu2Ce2O7 Synthesized by a Facile Solid State Method in Removal of Environmental Pollutant Malachite Green (MG)

Nanopowders of Eu 2 Ce 2 O 7 were synthesized via solid-state reactions between Eu 2 O 3 and (NH 4 ) 2 Ce(NO 3 ) 6 raw materials at stoichiometric 1:1 Eu/Ce molar ratio at 800 °C ( S 1 ), 900 °C (S 2 ), 1000 °C (S 3 ) for 8 h and 1000 °C for 10 h (S 4 ). The synthesized materials were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) technique. Structural analyses were performed by FullProf program employing profile matching with constant scale factors. The results showed that the patterns had a main Eu 2 Ce 2 O 7 structure with a space group of Fm 3 ¯ m . FESEM images showed that the synthesized Eu 2 Ce 2 O 7 particles had mono-shaped sphere morphologies. Ultraviolet–visible spectra showed that the nanostructured Eu 2 Ce 2 O 7 powders possessed strong light absorption properties in the ultraviolet–visible light region. The direct optical band gap energies were 3.08 eV (S 1 ), 3.05 eV (S 2 ), 2.91 eV (S 3 ) and 2.74 eV (S 4 ). Photocatalytic performance of the synthesized nanomaterials was investigated for the degradation of pollutant Malachite Green (4-{[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl](phenyl)methylidene}-N'N-dimethylcyclohexa-25-dien-1-iminium chloride) (MG) in aqueous solution under solar light condition. The optimum conditions were modeled and obtained by design expert software for S 1 which were 0.4 ml H 2 O 2 , 20 mg catalyst and 60 min for the removal of 60 ml of 50 ppm MG solutions. The degradation yield in these conditions was 93% for (S 1 ).