Abstract

Herein, we report the electrochemical synthesis of porous Pr(OH)₃ nanobelt arrays (NBAs), nanowire arrays (NWAs), nanowire bundles (NWBs), nanowires (NWs) and their applications as dye absorbents in water treatment. These Pr(OH)₃ nanostructures exhibit high efficient and selective adsorption of the dyes with amine (−NH₂) functional groups such as Congo red, Reactive yellow and Reactive blue. The high efficiency and selectivity is attributed to the large effective surface area of porous structure, plentiful hydroxyl groups and basic sites on Pr(OH)₃ surface. Furthermore, the toxicity studies of these porous Pr(OH)₃ nanostructure show negligible effect on seeds germination, indicating they have great potentials as environmental friendly absorbents in water treatment.

© 2013 Optical Society of America