Effect of doping of different rare earth (europium, gadolinium, dysprosium and neodymium) metal ions on structural, optical and photocatalytic properties of LaFeO3 perovskites

Different rare earth substituted perovskites LaRExFe1-xO3 (where RE = Eu3+, Gd3+, Dy3+, Nd3+ and x = 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.1) with orthorhombic structure and narrow band gaps were successfully fabricated via sol-gel autocombustion method. All the substituted perovskites are found to exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity towards the oxidative degradation of dye molecules. An excellent increase in the rate constant values of pure perovskite (LaFeO3) photocatalytic reactions is observed with the substitution of rare earth metal ions. Best results are obtained for LaNd0.1Fe0.9O3 which exhibits around 7 times increase in the rate constant values for degradation reaction of SO (1.76 x 10(-1) min(-1)) and RBY (1.69 x 10(-1) min(-1)) dyes. (C) 2019 Chinese Society of Rare Earths. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.