Photocatalytic degradation of atrazine under visible light using Gd-doped ZnO prepared by supercritical antisolvent precipitation route

Supercritical antisolvent precipitation route was employed for the first time to prepare Gd-doped ZnO photo catalysts to be tested in the photocatalytic degradation of atrazine under visible light. Physical-chemical characterization data show that the addition of Gd does not change the crystalline structure of ZnO and that Gd3+ ions are successfully introduced into the semiconductor lattice, leading to a decrease of band gap energy value and inducing the formation of oxygen vacancies inside the ZnO framework. The photocatalytic performances of the as-prepared samples are determined by analyzing the degradation of atrazine under visible light irradiation. The doped photocatalyst with a Gd loading of 0.7 mol% exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation compared to the other prepared photocatalysts. The possible reaction mechanism of the optimized photocatalyst is also discussed.

Automated summary

This study employed the supercritical antisolvent precipitation route to prepare Gd-doped ZnO photocatalysts for the degradation of atrazine under visible light. The addition of Gd successfully introduced Gd3+ ions into the ZnO lattice, leading to a decrease in band gap energy and the formation of oxygen vacancies. The photocatalytic activity of the doped photocatalyst with 0.7 mol% Gd loading was found to be the highest under visible light irradiation.