Biotemplated Synthesis Of Pristine And Yttrium-Doped Bismuth Ferrite Particles As Photocatalysts For The Degradation Of Methylene Blue Under Sunlight

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Date
2017-08
Authors
Abdul Satar, Nurul Syamimi
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
High purity bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) particles with rhombohedral structure have been successfully prepared by a employing green and facile technique utilizing κ-carrageenan as the biotemplate. The study on the effect of various parameters such as calcination temperature, the pH value of the precursor, the molar ratio of bismuth to iron, the concentration of κ-carrageenan and amount of yttrium-doped on the phase purity, morphology and optical properties of the BiFeO3 particles were conducted. The as-prepared undoped and yttrium-doped BiFeO3 in the presence of 2% w/v κ-carrageenan and calcined at 550 °C for 2 hr exhibited high purity with their average particle size around 97 ± 21 nm and 90 ± 14 nm, respectively. The band gap energy increased from 2.07 to 2.14 eV as the concentration of yttrium dopant increased, indicating their potential application in photocatalytic activities. The photocatalytic behaviors of BiFeO3 particles on the removal of methylene blue (MB) were evaluated under direct sunlight irradiation. The photocatalytic activity of BiFeO3 improved due to doping of yttrium into the active site, A-site, of the BiFeO3 particles. The effect of operational parameters such as the amount of catalyst, the initial concentrations of the dye and kinetic activity was investigated on the removal efficiency of MB. The as-prepared yttrium-doped BiFeO3 particles exhibited 97% removal of 50 mg/L of MB within 180 min compared to 87% removal when undoped BiFeO3 were used.
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Keywords
High purity bismuth ferrite , as the biotemplate
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