Synthesis, characterization, and morphological control of Eu2Ti2O7 nanoparticles through green method and its photocatalyst application

Nowadays, in connection with the increasing pollution of the environment, several studies are performed in order to find new group of compounds which could replace chemical synthesis capping agents due to their high toxicity to ecosystem and difficulty in being degraded in the environment. In the current study, an attempt is made to synthesize europium titanate (Eu2Ti2O7) nanoparticles through a green method with the aid of natural capping agents such as glucose, fructose, galactose, lactose and starch in an aqueous solution and investigate their effect on the morphology and particle size of final products. According to the vibrating sample magnetometer result, Eu2Ti2O7 nanoparticles indicated a paramagnetic behavior at room temperature. In addition, methyl orange was chosen as a dye water pollution to evaluate its degradation by as-synthesize Eu2Ti2O7 nanoparticles under ultraviolet light irradiation. Furthermore, the photocatalysis results reveal that the maximum decolorization of 94 % for methyl orange occurred with Eu2Ti2O7 nanoparticles in 60 min under ultraviolet light irradiation.