Effect of gadolinium doped ZnS nanoparticles: ferro magnetic photocatalyst for efficient dye degradation

• Published in: SN applied sciences Vol. 1; no. 3; p. 268
• Main Authors: Sanjeev Kumar, R., Veeravazhuthi, V., Muthukumarasamy, N., Thambidurai, M., Elango, M., Gnanaprakasam, A., Rajesh, G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.03.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 1. Chemistry (general); Analytical methods; Applied and Technical Physics; Chemical precipitation; Chemistry/Food Science; Color fading; Degradation; Dyes; Earth Sciences; Efficiency; Effluents; Engineering; Environment; Environmental impact; Gadolinium; Grain size; Hysteresis; Irradiation; Light irradiation; Magnetic studies; Magnetometers; Materials Science; Methylene blue; Morphology; Nanoparticles; Nitrates; Photocatalysis; Photodegradation; Pollutants; Research Article; Room temperature; Size distribution; X-ray diffraction; Zinc; Zinc sulfide; Chemical precipitation method; Gd doped ZnS; XRD; HRTEM
• ISSN: 2523-3963; 2523-3971
• DOI: 10.1007/s42452-019-0283-0

In the present work, solution based simple chemical precipitation method has been used to prepare undoped and Gd doped ZnS nanoparticles. The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by standard analytical methods the X-ray diffraction results revealed that the undoped and Gd doped ZnS nanoparticles corresponds to hexagonal wurtizite structure. The FESEM images shows that the formation of agglomerated nanoparticles. The compositional analysis confirmed the presence of Gd in ZnS matrix with reasonable dissolution range. HRTEM results show that undoped and Gd doped ZnS nanoparticles exhibit a uniform size distribution with average grain size lying in the range of 2.4–3.9 nm. The magnetic studies of Gd doped ZnS nanoparticles carried out at room temperature by vibrating sample magnetometer shows that the materials exhibit magnetic hysteresis. The prepared samples shows paramagnetic behavior at room temperature. The degradation of methylene blue dye (MB), methyl orange dye (MO) and effluent collected from industry by the undoped and Gd doped ZnS nanoparticles was studied using 8 W, UV visible lamp light irradiation. The color degradation efficiency for MB is found to be 95%, whereas the color degradation efficiency for MO is 97% and for the effluent collected from a dye industry it was nearly 90%.