Reline deep eutectic solvent mediated synthesis of lanthanum titanate for heavy metal remediation and photocatalytic degradation

Toxic heavy metal and dye contamination are potential threats that mutilate the essential triad of life; air, water andsoil. Despite commercial applicability and importance, the over accumulation of these noxious toxicants has become adisturbing concern. As a result, their remediation has drawn greater fascination leading to the inexplicable quest for amaterial which can act as both an adsorbent and as a photocatalyst. The present work highlights a novel solid-statetechnique assisted with reline (Choline chloride: Urea) deep eutectic solvent for the synthesis of lanthanum titanate. The synthesized material was established with physical characterizations like
PXRD , FT-IR, UV-DRS, BET, XPS, HR-SEMand TEM techniques. Further, the ruptured petal-like lanthanum titanate
was integrated as an adsorbent for theremoval of lead (Pb), arsenic (As) and chromium (Cr) heavy metals. The adsorbent presented increased adsorptionefficiencies of 96, 74 and 71% towards Pb, As and Cr respectively. Dependence of the degradation efficiency overconcentration, pH, contact time and competitive environments were analyzed and inferred. Furthermore, lanthanumtitanate was used for the photocatalytic degradation of reactive black (RB5), red (RR198) and yellow (RY145) dyes. Thedegradation efficiencies were found to be 68.31, 85.2 and 96.8% for RB5, RR198 and RY145 dyes respectively. Variationin concentration and pH of the dye solutions were examined and reaction kinetics was also proposed. In conclusion,the as synthesized lanthanum titanate is assured to play dual roles as a versatile cost-effective adsorbent for theremediation of heavy metals and as a potential candidate for photocatalytic degradation.