Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Ce-doped β-Ga₂O₃ nanofiber fabricated by electrospinning method

Herein, β-Ga₂O₃ photocatalyst was designed to improve the photocatalytic activity. Therefore, two strategies were employed: chemical modification by Ce doping and morphological control by formation of nanofibers. Therefore, Ce-doped β-Ga₂O₃ nanofibers were successfully synthesized using a sol–gel derived electrospinning. These synthesized nanofibers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV–vis spectroscopy. The SEM and XRD results indicated that Ce doping slightly influence on the morphology and crystal structure of nanofibers. In addition, the UV–vis transmittance spectra result indicates that the bandgap energy of Ce-doped β-Ga₂O₃ nanofibers was significantly reduced from 4.92 eV to 4.54 eV. In specific, the 0.7 mol % Ce-doped β-Ga₂O₃ nanofibers exhibits the lowest optical band gap energy as 4.54 eV. Moreover, the photodegradation properties of β-Ga₂O₃ nanofibers were evaluated by using the Methylene Blue (MB) under UV light. Interestingly, the β-Ga₂O₃ nanofibers doped by 0.7 mol% cerium atom exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity than other synthesized nanofibers. Consequently, from the overall characterizations, it was found that improved activity of photocatalytic degradation will be attributed to the narrow optical bandgap energy and reduced recombination rate arising from the cerium doping.