Enhanced Photoluminescence and Photocatalytic Efficiency of La-Doped Bismuth Molybdate: Its Preparation and Characterization

Herein, a systematic study of the enhanced physicochemical properties of lanthanide doped (La-doped) bismuth molybdate (Bi2MoO6) is performed. For this purpose, Bi2MoO6 and La-doped Bi2MoO6 were prepared by the sol-gel method. BiCl3, Na2MoO4·2H2O, and LaCl3·7H2O were taken as the main precursors while sodium dodecyl sulfate was used as a surfactant. Both Bi2MoO6 and La-doped Bi2MoO6 were calcined at 650 °C for 2 h. These prepared materials were characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as UV–VIS, FT-IR, XRD, photoluminescence, XPS, along with other techniques such as SEM, TEM, TGA, etc. The investigation of luminescence behavior revealed that the La-doped Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite exhibited much greater luminescence compared to the undoped Bi2MoO6. The photocatalytic behavior of the prepared materials was explored by studying the degradation of methylene blue (MB) at room temperature. The degradation of MB with Bi2MoO6 and La-doped bismuth molybdate were observed to be 68% and 75% @ 45 s, respectively, indicating an enhancement of catalytic performance due to the La doping.