Fe2O3/g-C3N4/CNTs based nanocomposites incorporated with neodymium and samarium nanoparticles for efficient photocatalytic vitiation of organic pollutants

Neodymium and samarium based nanocomposites with efficient photocatalytic activity were synthesized and their structural and morphology were characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. The SEM results of synthesized nanocomposites depict the flaked morphology of graphitic carbon nitride with interlinked stacked structure of metallic framework. UV-visible spectral studies revealed that the absorption edge has been shifted to longer wavelength in samarium and neodymium based samples which results in the decreased band gap of g-C3N4 being used as main precursor. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized catalysts was assessed by studying the degradation of Rhodamine B and Congo red dyes under visible light. The obtained results depict that Fe2O3/g-C3N4/CNTs/Sm2O3 nanocomposite is more efficient with 86.1% degradation efficiency and 80.2% for Rhodamine B and Congo red as compared to Fe2O3/g-C3N4/CNTs/Nd2O3. Present studies revealed that superoxide ions and holes play significant role in the degradation of dye effluents. Further, the possible mechanism of the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants using samarium based nanocomposites is also proposed.