Facile Fabrication of a ZnO/Eu2O3/NiO-Based Ternary Heterostructure Nanophotocatalyst and Its Application for the Degradation of Methylene Blue

Abstract

The ZnO-based ternary heterostructure ZnO/Eu2O3/NiO nanoparticles are synthesized using waste curd as fuel by a simple one-pot combustion method. The as-synthesized heterostructure is characterized by using various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques including X-ray diffraction, UV-vis, FTIR, SEM, and TEM analyses. The photocatalytic activity of the ternary nanocomposite was tested for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) under solar light irradiation. The results have revealed that the ternary ZnO/Eu2O3/NiO photocatalyst exhibits excellent performance toward the photocatalytic degradation of the studied dye. Optimization studies revealed that the synthesized heterostructure exhibited a pH-dependent photocatalytic activity, and better results are obtained for specific concentrations of dye and catalysts. Among the different light sources employed during the study, the catalyst was found to possess the best degradation efficiency in visible light.