Visible and near-infrared light-driven photocatalytic activity of erbium-doped CaTiO3 system

• The Er3+-CaTiO3 system was prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method.
• The presence of Er3+ ions produced an increase of the cell volume of the CaTiO3.
• The photocatalysts showed a well-defined prism-like morphology.
• Anti-Stokes emission from Er3+ contributed to the photocatalytic behavior.

Erbium-doped CaTiO3 system has been prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method. The as-obtained photocatalysts were characterized by several techniques such as X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area. From the structural characterization, it can be demonstrated that the presence of Er3+ ions would cause an increase of the cell volume of the CaTiO3 crystalline phase. The photocatalytic behavior of the samples was evaluated by means of the degradation of methylene blue under UV–vis–NIR irradiation. The results showed that the presence of Er3+ ions induces a significant increase of the photocatalytic activity of the system providing higher degradation rates (4.54 × 10−5 s−1) with respect to pristine CaTiO3 (1.86 × 10−5 s−1). However after a heat treatment at 850 °C, the photocatalytic efficiency of the system increased dramatically until values of 11.9 × 10−5 s−1. From experiments carried out under vis–NIR irradiation, it was possible to obtain experimental evidence of the presence of up-conversion process from Er3+ ions.

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