6TH International Congress on Technology - Engineering - Kuala Lumpur3 - Malaysia (2018-07-19)

Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity Of Co-doped Bifeo3 Nanoparticles By Degradation Of Methylene Blue Under Visible Light

The improved photocatalytic activity of nanostructured Bi1-xGdxFe1-ySnyO3 (x=0.0, 0.10, 0.25; y=0.0, 0.10) particles, synthesized by sol gel method was determined by the degradation of Methylene blue under visible light exposure. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies indicated that the doping induced structural changes in Gd and Sn substituted BiFeO3. The field emission scanning (FESEM) showed the composition driven morphology changes in BiFeO3 from irregular to nearly spherical shape. The band gap calculations were done by UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy revealed that increasing concentration of Gd reduced the band gap of BiFeO3 from 2.03 eV to 1.88 eV. The photocatalytic activity of BiFeO3 was observed to be increased with increasing concentration of Gd and at optimum value of Sn into Bi3+ and Fe3+ sites of BiFeO3. In this case, enhanced photocatalytic activity observed in Bi0.90Gd0.10Fe0.90Sn0.10O3 and Bi0.75Gd0.25Fe0.90Sn0.10O3 could be due to its enhanced ferroelectric domains which move the charge carriers to the surface of catalyst and organic dye interface, which leads to more effective degradation of the organic dye.
Syed Irfan Ali, Fan Ping, Zheng Zhuanghao, Liangliang Li, Ce Wen Nan