Hydrothermal synthesis, influencing factors and excellent photocatalytic performance of novel nanoparticle-assembled Bi₂₅FeO₄₀tetrahedrons

Abstract

Novel nanoparticle-assembled Bi 25 FeO 40 (BFO) tetrahedrons with relatively good dispersion were successfully synthesized through a facile, mild and rapid hydrothermal process. The phases and morphologies of the samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Such sillenite-type BFO tetrahedrons were found to be fabricated by abundant nanoparticles with single crystalline nature. Some influencing factors including reaction time, temperature and the amount of additives (e.g., polyacrylamide, sodium citrate and sodium hydroxide) were revealed to play crucial roles in the generation of this BFO nanoarchitecture. Moreover, the visible lightdriven photocatalytic activities of the BFO products were investigated. CrystEngCommThis journal is

Enhanced photocatalytic dye degradation and hydrogen production ability of Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposite and mechanism insight

“…While Bi 25 FeO 40 has a better optical absorption capability due to the smaller band gap, ferroelectric nature of BiFeO 3 helps it develop a superior resistance to recombination processes [38,42]. However, until now, it has been challenging to synthesize both BiFeO 3 and Bi 25 FeO 40 nanoparticles with excellent phase-purity due to the difficulties associated with controlling the synthesis parameters, in particular, synthesis temperature [42][43][44][45]. Moreover, unfavorable band energetics of both BiFeO 3 and Bi 25 FeO 40 have also limited their use in energy-related applications, e.g., photocatalytic hydrogen production from water.…”

Low-temperature fabrication of Bi25FeO40/rGO nanocomposites with efficient photocatalytic performance under visible light irradiation

“…19 As a representative sillenite-type compound, Bi 25 FeO 40 also displayed photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic dyes under visible-light irradiation. 20,21 It should be emphasized that Bi 25 FeO 40 was found to be superparamagnetic, 22 providing the photocatalyst with an extra advantage for feasible separation and recovery.…”

Growth of sillenite Bi12FeO20 single crystals: structural, thermal, optical, photocatalytic features and first principle calculations

“…The XPS spectra of O 1s shown in Fig. 4 d also revealed two peaks at 530.43 eV and 533.11 eV corresponding to Fe–O and Bi-O bonds respectively 33 , 34 . Hence the role of Bi 3+ and rare occurrence of Fe 4+ in constituting the ideal Bi 12 FeO 20 sillenite single crystal was confirmed.…”