Photocatalytic degradation of reactive anionic dyes RB5, RR198 and RY145 via rare earth element (REE) lanthanum substituted CaTiO3 perovskite catalysts

Water serves as a key component in the basis of life to function and evolve unceasingly. Excessive deterioration of fresh water resources through discarding enormous amounts of dye effluents is becoming a problem of concern. In this work we report a conventional solid-state technique improved with choline chloride: urea DES medium in 1:2 ratio for synthesizing pure calcium titanate (CTO) and lanthanum doped calcium titanate (LaxCa1-xTiO3; x = 0.0 and 0.5). Both the materials were subjected to photocatalytically degrade reactive dyes RB5, RR198 and RY145. La-doped calcium titanate showed effective degradation efficiency when compared to the pure calcium titanate. On increasing the concentration of the dye, the efficiency of degradation declined gradually. Also, the efficiency was assessed to be greatest for RY145 followed by RR198 and lastly RB5. Efficiency dependence on different pH exposed the enhanced degradation in acidic medium and comparatively lowered pH in basic medium. Recyclability was highly satisfying and promising to validate the real-time applicability of the catalyst.