Fabrication of Cost‐Effective La‐MoO ₃ Nanoparticle for Probing of Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Applications

ABSTRACT The presented study probing a green Indian borage leaves (IBL) mediated synthesis of MoO 3 and La‐MoO 3 nanoparticles by combustion method offers a unique, cost‐effective, and stable semiconductor for hetero‐junction photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications. The structural confirmation of synthesized materials were well examined by various spectral technique viz; X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX), Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR) and UV‐visible spectral analysis. The crystallinity and average particle sizes of prepared nanoparticles were ascertained by XRD studies. The impact of La doping on surface morphology for MoO 3 nanoparticles were discussed using SEM‐EDX technique. The observed energy band gap for La‐MoO 3 photocatalyst is 3.59 eV, and their absolute electronegativity was determined to be 1.5 eV using Milliken's electronegativity equation. The greater photo‐degradation ability of La‐MoO 3 photocatalyst on Methylene blue (MB) than Rhodamine B (RhB) dye under UV‐light irradiation was examined. The results display the degradation of MB and RhB dye were found to be 85.8% than 79.7% respectively for 140 min and its follows a pseudo‐first‐order kinetics (kinetic rate of 0.03367 min −1 ). I‐V characterization of perovskite solar cells fabricated by La doped nanoparticles pretenses a better result with its open‐circuit voltage (OCV) found to be 0.71 V and an efficiency of 1.33%. The short circuit current density (SCD) of the PSC fabricated with La‐doped material was determined to be 4.789 mA/cm 2 This experimental measurements directs a route for photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications of various nano‐semiconductor materials.