Synthesis and characterization of Gd-doped PbMoO_(4) nanoparticles used for UV-light-driven photocatalysis

Gd-doped PbMoO_(4) nanoparticles were prepared by a refluxing method at 80℃ for 2 h.Effect of molar content of Gd dopant on phase,morphology and optical properties was studied.The as-prepared Gddoped PbMoO_(4) samples can be indexed to pure tetragonal PbMoO_(4) phase.The particles size of PbMoO_(4) is decreased with increasing in the molar content of Gd dopant from 15.20±3.04 nm for pure PbMoO_(4) to 8.72±1.53 nm for 5 mol% Gd-doped PbMoO_(4).The absorption of 5 mol% Gd-doped PbMoO_(4) nanoparticles shows red-shift caused by lattice distortion of PbMoO_(4).The photocatalytic performance of 5 mol% Gddoped PbMoO_(4) nanoparticles shows the highest degradation of rhodamine B(RhB) of 97.92% under UV radiation and 67.65% under visible radiation because Gd^(3+) dopant as an electron acceptor plays the role in enhancing the separation of electron-hole pair.