20.500.12556/DiRROS-25188 Thermally activated composite ▫$Y_2O_3-bTiO_2$▫ as an efficient photocatalyst for degradation of azo dye reactive black 5 Water pollution from textile effluents poses serious environmental risks, particularly due to persistent anionic dyes such as Reactive Black 5 (RB5). This study demonstrates that simple deposition of Y2O3 onto commercially available, biobased TiO2 (bTiO2) significantly enhances photocatalytic degradation efficiency under simulated sunlight, suppressing rapid recombination of electron–hole pairs. Addressing a key research gap, the proposed method replaces expensive nanoscale precursors and complex synthesis routes typically used for Y2O3/TiO2 systems with a low-cost, straightforward approach involving weak complexation and co-precipitation. The resulting Y2O3-bTiO2 composite was characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM, XPS, and UV-DRS techniques, confirming efficient incorporation of Y2O3 on the TiO2 surface. Photocatalytic experiments revealed that nanoparticles calcined at 700 °C achieved complete RB5 degradation within 60 min—reducing the reaction time by half compared to undoped bTiO2. Systematic studies of initial dye concentration, catalyst loading, and irradiation time confirmed that the degradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.064 min−1 (R2 = 0.98). Calculated quantum yields corroborated the reduced electron–hole recombination induced by Y2O3 deposition. These findings highlight the novelty and practicality of the developed Y2O3-bTiO2 photocatalyst as an efficient, affordable, and environmentally sustainable material for the degradation of industrial dyes. quantum yield synthetic dyes UV irraddiation sintetična barvila ultravijolično obsevanje true false true MDPI Švica Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik © 2025 by the authors. Neznano 2026-01-13 12:30:52 2026-01-13 12:30:52 2026-01-14 03:53:41 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Soavtorja iz Slovenije: Kristina Žagar Soderžnik, Janez Kovač; Opis vira z dne 13. 1. 2026; str. 1-19 iss. 1, [article no.] 8 Vol. 31 Jan. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2025-11-17 2025-12-16 2025-12-19 544.3/.4 1420-3049 10.3390/molecules31010008 264465155 https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/31/1/8 1 532251a5-f073-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=37977 RAZ_Jovanovic_Aleksandar_2026.pdf RAZ_Jovanovic_Aleksandar_2026.pdf 1 89744AE2AB901FE0BBD0F45CFD380497 c2c5148f03253eeeb90ed5e0828c9eace89622a9ba1aacacc446f9a02b1f7995 b14f2125-f073-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=37978 Institut Jožef Stefan 0 0 0