Low-temperature synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic properties of lanthanum vanadate LaVO4

S Lotfi; M El Ouardi; H Ait Ahsaine; V Madigou; A BaQais; A Assani; M Saadi; M Arab

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17255

Low-temperature synthesis, characterization and photocatalytic properties of lanthanum vanadate LaVO₄

Heliyon. 2023 Jun 13;9(6):e17255. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17255. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Authors

S Lotfi¹, M El Ouardi^{1

2}, H Ait Ahsaine¹, V Madigou², A BaQais³, A Assani¹, M Saadi¹, M Arab²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire de chimie appliquée des matériaux, faculté des sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco.
² Institut Matériaux Microélectronique et Nanoscience du Provence IM2NP, UMR, CNRS, Université du Sud Toulon-Var, France.
³ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this study, we have successfully prepared tetragonal lanthanum vanadate LaVO₄ nanoparticles by a facile co-precipitation method at room temperature. The obtained materials were characterized using different structural and micro-structural techniques such as the characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectrum (DRS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman spectrometry. The obtained structure is crystallized in single tetragonal phase with pin-like nanostructure. A main optical transition with bandgap energy of 3.26 eV is evidenced, and the average lifetime of charges carriers was found to be 1 ns Furthermore, the photoluminescence occurs in the visible light range. The photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) with initial concentration of 10 mg L^-1. The result indicates that LaVO₄ particles showed a best photocatalytic activity of 98.2% degradation for methylene blue solution after irradiation of 90 min under visible light. Furthermore, the photocatalytic mechanism and reusability were studied.

Keywords: Dye degradation; Lanthanum vanadate; Optical properties; Photocatalysis.