Photocatalytic Degradation of PFOA with Porous Lanthanoid Perovskites Nano Catalyst

Abstract Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a persistent environmental pollutant, poses significant health and ecological risks. This study investigates for the first time the photocatalytic degradation of PFOA using novel doped perovskite catalysts under polychromatic UV–VIS irradiation with a peak emission at 366 nm. A series of nickel‐ and lanthanide‐doped perovskites (NiMn 2 O 4 , LaMnO 3 , NdMnO 3 , and their nickel‐doped variants) were synthesized via a facile co‐precipitation technique and characterized using X‐ray diffraction (XRD), UV–VIS diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–VIS‐DRS), scanning electron microscopy with energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX), N 2 ‐physisorption, and microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (MP‐AES). Photocatalytic experiments revealed that Ni/NdMnO 3 exhibited the highest degradation efficiency toward PFOA, likely due to its small band gap energy of 1.5 eV, facilitating efficient C–C bond cleavage.