The development of cost-effective water-treatment methods to remove toxic industrial contaminants is of burgeoning demand today. This paper discusses the superior performance of Ce doped ZnO for the photocatalytic degradation of toxic cationic and anionic dyes. The excellent degradation ability of this easily manoeuvrable solid photocatalyst developed by the facile and low-cost electrochemical method, for the simultaneous removal of multiple dyes, avoiding the need for any post treatments is successfully demonstrated with the synthetic dyes methylene blue, methyl orange, congo red and their mixture. The pH dependence of the photocatalytic efficiency is correlated with its zeta potential. The improved photocatalytic efficiency is attributed to the Ce4+↔Ce3+ redox couple acting as trap centers enhancing the production of superoxide radicals and the reduction of carrier recombination. The scavenger and cyclic stability tests confirm respectively the dominant role of superoxide radicals in photocatalysis and the reusability of the photocatalyst. The photocatalyst is characterized in detail by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Rutherford backscattering, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, surface charge analysis and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The study highlights the prospect of Ce doped ZnO nanostructured film as a high-performing photocatalyst for water treatment.

中文翻译：

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铈掺杂 ZnO 纳米结构光催化剂用于降解多种染料


如今，开发具有成本效益的水处理方法以去除有毒工业污染物的需求正在迅速增长。本文讨论了 Ce 掺杂 ZnO 在光催化降解有毒阳离子和阴离子染料方面的优异性能。这种易于操作的固体光催化剂通过简单且低成本的电化学方法开发，用于同时去除多种染料，无需任何后处理，成功证明了合成染料亚甲蓝、甲基橙、刚果红及其混合物。光催化效率的 pH 依赖性与其 zeta 电位相关。光催化效率的提高归因于 Ce4+↔Ce3+ 氧化还原对作为陷阱中心，促进了超氧自由基的产生和载流子复合的减少。清除剂和循环稳定性测试分别证实了超氧自由基在光催化中的主导作用和光催化剂的可重复使用性。通过 X 射线衍射、X 射线光电子能谱、场发射扫描电子显微镜、卢瑟福背散射、高分辨率透射电子显微镜、选定区域电子衍射、表面电荷分析和漫反射光谱对光催化剂进行了详细表征。该研究强调了 Ce 掺杂 ZnO 纳米结构薄膜作为高性能光催化剂用于水处理的前景。