Abstract
In this work, novel sunlight driven photocatalyst direct dual Z-scheme ZnO-Sm2O3–Y2O3@rGO heterostructured nanocomposite was synthesized through co-precipitation technique. The obtained products were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, I–V, and UV–vis to investigate structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO-Sm2O3–Y2O3@rGO nanocomposite against MB dye is approximately 98.5% at 75 min under sunlight irradiation, which is higher than simple ZnO-Sm2O3–Y2O3 nanocomposite 78.0%. The enhanced photocatalytic properties are attributed to the presence of Z-scheme and the use of rGO, which acts as electrons/interfacial mediators and reduced electron/hole pair recombination. Furthermore, the photocatalytic experiments were also performed by varying conditions using ZnO-Sm2O3–Y2O3@rGO nanocomposite. The trapping experiments and reusability test was also carried out.
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•Sunlight driven photocatalyst direct dual Z-scheme ZnO-Sm2O3-Y2O3@rGO heterostructured nanocomposite.•Structural, morphological, electrical, and optical studies of grown nanocomposite.•Detail study of photocatalytic activity.•The different possible schemes were designed to elaborate the photocatalytic mechanism.