Effects of neodymium doping on the photoluminescent and photocatalytic properties of β-ZnMoO4

Ceramics International

2025-05

Zinc molybdate

Neodymium

Hydrothermal synthesis

Optical properties

Pollutant degradation

In the present work, a comparative investigation of the photoluminescence performance and photocatalytic properties of pure ZnMoO4 and ZnMoO4 doped with neodymium at 0.11, 0.22 and 0.33 mol % was performed. The samples were obtained via conventional hydrothermal treatment at 140 °C for 8 h. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) measurements were performed. The XRD patterns confirmed that these crystals are monophasic and present a wolframite-type monoclinic structure. The XRD results, with structural refinement, revealed the formation of the β-ZnMoO4 phase for all the samples, which is characteristic of a wolframite-type monoclinic crystal structure. SEM-FEG micrographs revealed the evolution of the morphology of the powders with increasing dopant content, resulting in irregular plate-like shapes. The ZnMoO4 bandgap decreased with the addition of neodymium. The photoluminescence results indicated that there was a predominance of deep defects. The results electrochemistry indicated minimized recombination of electron/hole pairs of the Nd-doped sample due to enhanced charge transfer. The catalytic degradation of the MIX crystal violet (CV) and green malachite (MG) dyes indicated that the with 0.22 mol% neodymium-doped sample removed 96.97 % under sunlight. After three cycles of reuse under sunlight, good photocatalytic performance was maintained, and inhibition tests indicated that the holes were the active radicals