Influence of yttrium doping on the photocatalytic behaviour of lanthanum titanate: a material for water treatment

Abstract

Remediating water contamination greatly benefits from the removal of chemical as well as microbiological contaminants using the same substance. Yttrium-doped Lanthanum Titanate (LaY x Ti1−x O3, where x = 0 (LTO) and 0.05 (LYTO)) nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized by the auto-combustion method were already proven to have better antibacterial activities. The current study aims to investigate the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the same sample for the organic pollutant Methylene Blue (MB) dye. Here, two vital and decisive characterization methods were employed: Raman spectroscopy for chemical and morphological features and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for surface phase identification. The oxidation states of La3+ and Ti3+ ions have been deduced using XPS. The HRTEM reveals the nano-structure with SAED pattern is supporting with XRD data. LaTiO3 (LTO) and LaY0.05Ti0.95O3 (LYTO) nanoparticles showed degradation efficiencies of 40.26 % and 86.24 %, respectively, at degrading methylene blue (MB) dye after a reaction time of 90 min. The degradation efficiency of LTO increased to 87.19 % after a reaction time of 150 min. The introduction of yttrium doping into lithium titanate demonstrates promise as a material for mitigating water treatment, as it augments the material’s antibacterial and photocatalytic characteristics.