Photocatalytic activity of GeSbSeEr quaternary chalcogenide for efficient methylene blue degradation in visible light

Abstract

For the first time, simple and robust melt quench synthesis based pure and doped quaternary Ge17Sb8Se75−xErx(Er; x = 0, 0.6, 1) chalcogenides have been used to demonstrate photo-catalytic dye degradation under green light (560 nm) illumination. Inspired by the excellent optoelectronic and thermal properties of the studied composition, rare earth element doped chalcogenide was found to show variation in band gap from 1.88 eV (for pure) to ∼1.78 eV (for highest amount of dopant Erbium). We found an enhanced thaizene dye (methylene blue) degradation up to 96% in 160 min for Er; x = 0.6 sample. SEM-EDX, UV–Vis (Tauc Plots), Room temperature Raman spectroscopy measurements are supplemented to discuss the visible light driven catalytic properties. These pure and Er doped GeSbSe chalcogenides are found to have low cost synthesis, scalability and environmental friendly response which suggests its potential in many optoelectronic application.

Keywords

• Rare earth doped chalcogenides
• SEM-EDS
• Raman spectroscopy
• Photocatalysis