Augmented photocatalytic and electrochemical activities of Ag tailored LaCoO3 perovskite semiconductor

Inorganic perovskite materials have drawn significant interest in photocatalytic application owing to their excellent photo absorbing nature. In this regard, we have synthesized pristine and silver (Ag) modified lanthanum cobaltite (LaCoO3) perovskite by hydrothermal method and characterized by multi-technique approaches. The structural, absorption and emission studies reveal that addition of Ag influences the crystallite size, absorption co-efficient and electron hole recombination rate of LaCoO3. Morphological analysis shows that tetragonal morphology of the pure LaCoO3 is changed to square shape morphology on addition of Ag, which reveals the dispersion of Ag into LaCoO3. Electrochemical analysis demonstrates the possible electrochemical activity of the materials and confirms that Ag provides higher charge transfer kinetics and stability to LaCoO3. In addition, Ag-LaCoO3 degrades methylene blue (MB) in higher rate (99% in 10 min) compared to LaCoO3 (75% in 10 min). Mechanism behinds the photocatalytic activity has been discussed. Hence, the present investigation explores Ag modified LaCoO3 as a new-potential candidate for the application in photocatalytic activity under sunlight irradiation.