A novel lanthanum and bismuth based self-cleaning nanocomposite for organic pollutants

Herein we report a novel photocatalyst composite encompassing oxides of lanthanum and bismuth synthesized via a microwave assisted method. The characterization of the composite was carried out by fourier transform (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tansmission electron microscopy (TEM). The low band gap incurred by the composite bolster efficient photocatalytic applications. The photocatalytic degradation studies were optimized with methylene blue (MB) and the composite with 47 weight percentage of lanthanum and bismuth showed effective degradation applications. It is anticipated that an efficient degradation of the basic dye MB within 120 minutes and a highly toxic insecticide acephate within 240 minutes. The total organic carbon (TOC) analysis shows the mineralization of about 81.32 % of MB after 120 minutes and about 65.21 % of acephate in 240 minutes solar irradiation. The prominent photocatalytic degradation property of the synthesized binary composite makes it a promising catalyst for future perspectives.