Abstract

Nano-sized Sm3+ carbonate particles were prepared through a chemical precipitation reaction in aqueous media. The reaction involved admixing streams of Sm3+ ion solutions with CO3 (2-) solutions. The synthesis route was optimized through the Taguchi robust statistical design and effective parameters like the concentration of the ion solutions, flow rate of Sm3+ feed, and reactor temperature on the size of synthesized samarium carbonate particles were evaluated based on an orthogonal array (OA(9)), which revealed that under optimized synthesis conditions samarium carbonate particles as small as 35 nm could be produced. By treating the product in a further thermal decomposition step, 56 nm Sm2O3 nanoparticles were also produced. The chemical composition and structure of the nano-sized samarium carbonate and oxide particles were studied through X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy and the synthsized nano-particles were evaluated in terms of their photo-catalytic effects in the UV-induced degradation of methyl orange (MO).