Effect of Zr substitution on photocatalytic and magnetic properties of lanthanum titanate

Photocatalysis is considered a highly promising method to treat water samples contaminated with organic pollutants. Zirconium-doped lanthanum titanate (LaTi1−x Zr x O3, where x = 0 (LTO) and 0.05 (LZTO)) NPs were synthesized by the auto-combustion method and characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and Raman spectroscopy. LTO and LZTO have tetragonal structure with an average crystalline size of 16 nm and 13 nm respectively. The band gap from UV–vis DRS was estimated to be 3.52 and 3.36 eV, respectively. The analysis of surface morphology indicates that the addition of Zr disrupted the crystal structure of LTO and transformed its spherical morphology into a rod-like structure. The Raman spectra of the LTO and LZTO crystal structure revealed the presence of A g and B 2g symmetry phonons. The magnetic properties were analysed by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) which confirmed the ferromagnetic behaviour. LZTO nanoparticles have been shown to have an efficiency of 92 % after 80 min of degradation. The synthesized LZTO samples exhibited enhanced ferromagnetic behaviour and improved photoactivity for the degradation of methylene blue dye as compared to those of pure LTO, make LZTO a good choice for magnetically separable photocatalysts that effectively purify contaminated water.