Study on the synthesis and activity of Ag/LaFeO3/CNTs for photodegradation of harmful pollutants under visible light irradiation

Abstract

The current study is based on the synthesis of lanthanum ferrite (LF), silver-doped lanthanum ferrite (AgLF), and its composite with CNTs (AgLF@CNT) for degradation of organic effluents under visible light. The physiochemical characteristics of synthesized nanomaterials were examined by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Visible spectroscopy. XRD results revealed that the synthesized product has a crystalline structure. Tauc plot method was used to analyze the bandgap energy of the prepared nanocatalysts. Bare and doped lanthanum ferrite showed bandgap energy of 2.72 eV and 1.81 eV, respectively. The % degradation shown by LF, AgLF and AgLF@CNT for the degradation of methylene orange was 37.93%, 53.98%, and 78.26%, respectively. AgLF@CNT showed 74.42% degradation of crystal violet at the rate of 0.007 min(-1). AgLF@CNT has an effective visible efficiency of photocatalysis for methylene orange and crystal violet degradation and gives better photodegradation efficiency due to a large number of active sites, greater surface area, good oxidizer and greater stability of carbon nanotubes.