Fast catalytic degradation of organic dye with air and MoO3:Ce nanofibers under room condition

One-dimensional Ce doped MoO3 nanofibers with different Ce doping amount have been synthesized by a combination method of sol-gel process and electrospinning technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the resulting samples. These fibers are interesting for a number of catalytic applications. The best catalytic activity was obtained over 11.86 wt.% CeO2-doped MoO3 with 98% degradation effect of 0.3 g L-1 Safranin-T by air under room condition towards complete degradation products such as HCO3- and NO3- within 20 min. The leaching test showed that this MoO3:Ce nanofiber catalyst has an excellent stability and can be used as a rapid heterogeneous catalyst for about ten times by simply treatment. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.