Preparation and characterization of nanocrystalline praseodymium oxide via a simple precipitation approach

Pr₆O₁₁ nanostructures were successfully prepared by new facile precipitation strategies that employed Pr(NO₃)₃·6H₂O and a novel precipitating agent in presence of poly ethylene glycol (PEG) as starting materials, and water as the solvent. The novelty of this study is the application of tetramethylethylenediamine (TMED) as a new precipitating and co-capping agent in presence of PEG for the synthesis of praseodymium oxide nanostructures. The formation of as-produced nanostructures and their structure, shape and elemental composition were analyzed by means of several techniques including FT-IR, EDAX, XRD, TEM and FESEM. The optical properties of the samples were characterized by (UV–Vis) absorption and (PL) spectroscopy. In addition, the photocatalyst activity of as-prepared Pr₆O₁₁ nanostructures was evaluated by degradation of 2-naphthol under ultraviolet light irradiation. Based on the experimental findings in this work, it was found that particle size and shape of the final praseodymium oxide could be dramatically affected via the dosage of TMED. Furthermore, the mechanism effect of TMED in presence of PEG for formation of nanostructures discussed preliminarily.