Facile Construction Engineering of PrO@C with Efficient Photocatalytic Activity.

In this study, facile construction engineering of PrO@C with efficient photocatalytic activity was established. Taking advantage of the flocculation of Pr in the base medium, acid red 14 (AR14) was flocculated together with Pr(OH) precipitate, in which Pr(OH) and AR14 mixed highly uniformly. Calcinated at high temperature in N2, a novel PrO@C was successfully synthesized. The resulting materials were characterized by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, Raman, and XPS techniques. The results show that the cubic PrO@C with Fm3m space group, similar to that of PrO, was obtained. From the results of the photodegradation of AR14, it is found that the photocatalytic efficiency of PrO@C is higher than that of pure PrO due to the formation of abundant carbon bonds and oxygen vacancies. Compared with pure PrO and other carbon-based composites, the acid resistance of PrO@C is greatly improved due to the highly uniform dispersion of PrO and C, which lays a solid foundation for the practical application of PrO@C. Moreover, the role of NH3·HO and NaOH used as precipitants for the photocatalytic efficiency of PrO was investigated in detail.