A novel photocatalyst CeF3: facile fabrication and photocatalytic performance

Abstract

The pursuit of semiconductor photocatalysts with outstanding performance has stimulated increasing efforts to explore novel materials to address problems in environmental remediation and energy utilization. Herein, we first report the synthesis of CeF₃ nanoparticles by a facile low-temperature solution combustion method and its performance for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) under UV light irradiation. Interestingly, only by adjusting the molar ratios of ammonium fluoride to cerium chloride, pure CeF₃ nanoparticles, its mixture with CeO₂ and/or Ce₂O₃, and pure CeO₂ nanoparticles can be easily obtained, respectively. The synthesized CeF₃ nanoparticles can effectively decompose organic contaminants in aqueous solution and show enhanced photocatalytic activity than CeO₂ nanoparticles. Moreover, CeF₃ exhibits high stability. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation has been performed to understand the photocatalysis mechanism of CeF₃ nanoparticles. This research might provide some new insights for the synthesis of novel photocatalyst with high photocatalytic performance.