New facile preparation of Ho2O3 nanostructured material with improved photocatalytic performance

Present work describes a facile approach to synthesize highly photocatalytically active holmium oxide (Ho2O3) nanostructured photocatalyst with the aid of [HoL(NO3)(2)]NO3 (L = bis-(2-hydroxynaphthaldehyde)-1,2-ethandiamin), as novel holmium source and sodium dodecyl sulfate as capping agent. To investigate the influence of the capping agent dosage on the particle size and morphology of holmium oxide, several experiments were carried out. The structural, optical, magnetic and morphological characteristics of as-synthesized Ho2O3 nanostructures were analyzed by energy dispersive X-raymicroanalysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, thermo-gravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and vibrating samplemagnetometer techniques. Moreover, the photocatalytic degradation of the erythrosine, eosin Y and methylene blue as water pollutants was carried out to evaluate the catalytic properties of as-obtained Ho2O3 nanostructures.