LAUSR

A facile chemical route was adopted to synthesize doped CeO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with group V elements (V, Nb and Ta) as dopants. Successful incorporation of dopants was confirmed with higher angle shift of diffraction peaks in X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. As a result of doping, a red shift in the absorption edge has also been observed with significant decrement in optical band gap (3.3 → 2.7 eV). Surface chemical composition was also determined with the help of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in which presence of dopants supported the XRD results. The associated structural modifications (O-defects) has also been determined by Raman spectroscopy in order to understand the structure-optical co-relationship. Here, the detailed photodegradation of methylene blue dye revealed the effect of individual chemical characteristics of dopants on optical and electronic transitions between valence and conduction band edges of prepared CeO2. Further, the prepared Nb-doped CeO2 exhibited better photocatalytic efficiency (96.8%) as compared to other samples with excellent reusability upto 4 continuous cycles.