Synthesis, characterization of ternary metal oxides nanocomposite (ZnO–CdO–Pr 2 O 3 ) for photodegradation of organic pollutants: methylene blue & rhodamine B

In this work, a novel photocatalytic material ZnO–CdO–Pr 2 O 3 heterostructured ternary nanocomposite was successfully prepared using co-precipitation method from respective metal salts precursors. FT-IR, SEM, XRD and EDX analytical techniques were used to investigate the functional group (M–O), surface morphology, crystal phase purity and elemental composition of prepared nanocomposite, respectively. The direct energy bandgap of ternary nanocomposite (1.64 eV) was calculated from UV–vis spectroscopy, which makes it a proficient photocatalyst under sunlight illumination. The ternary nanocomposite (5 mg/L) showed 93% degradation efficiency against methylene blue and rhodamine B dyes under various time intervals. Adsorption kinetic of dyes on the surface of photocatalyst was effectively described by using first order kinetics model with all R 2 > 95 indicating the strong relationship between time and dye concentration. A possible schematic model was proposed to elaborate the mechanism of degradation. Furthermore, species trapping experiments using various scavengers were conducted and results indicated that O 2 .− and OH . radicals were actively involved in degrading process.