Collaborative influence of morphology tuning and RE (La, Y, and Sm) doping on photocatalytic performance of nanoceria

Tuning morphology and doping additional rare earth (RE) cations are potential techniques to promote the photocatalytic performance of ceria (CeO 2 ), evaluating the collaborative effects of morphology and RE dopants is significant for producing high active ceria-based catalysts. So in this work, cubic, polyhedral and rod-like nanoceria doped with 10 mol % La (lanthanum), Y (yttrium), or Sm (samarium) were synthesized by a facile template-free hydrothermal method. Phases, morphologies, oxygen vacancies (OVs) concentration, energy band structure, photo-carriers separation/recombination, and photodegradation ratio toward methylene blue (MB) dye of as prepared ceria were studied. Results show that doped CeO 2 maintains a similar morphology structure with un-doped sample and the band gap narrows slightly. Y-doped nanoceria, with an improved separation and a reduced recombination of photo-excited electrons ( e − ) and holes ( h + ), owns a higher MB photodegradation ratio than that of samples doping with La or Sm, which is measured as 79.04, 84.43, and 85.59% for Y-doped cubic, polyhedral, and rod-like CeO 2 . The collaborative influence of morphology tuning and RE (La, Y, and Sm) doping on photocatalytic performance of nanoceria includes the effects of doped elements and the formation of OVs. The elevation of OVs concentration as well as the separation efficiency of photo-generated e − / h + are suggested to further enhance the photocatalytic performance of ceria.