Structural and Functional Behaviour of Ce-Doped Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors for Photo-Catalytic Applications

Increasing the photocatalytic efficiency of earth-abundant wide-bandgap semiconductors is of high interest for the development of cheap but effective light-driven chemical conversion processes. In this study, the coupling of ZnO and TiO2 with low contents of the rare-earth Ce species aimed to assess the photo-catalytic performance of the two semiconductors (SC). Structural and optical characterizations were performed to estimate the effect of the different interactions between Zn2+, Ti4+ and Ce4+ ions, and how the photo-responsive behaviour of Ce-Ti and Ce-Zn composites was affected. Therefore, photo-catalytic tests were performed for all Ce-modified SC to assess both their photo-oxidative and photo-reductive properties. Amongst all the tested materials, only Zn-based samples resulted in being suitable for the photo-oxidation of the methylene blue (MB) organic pollutant in a synthetic-dependent fashion.