Property Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity Evaluation of BiGdO3 Nanoparticles under Visible Light Irradiation

Abstract

BiGdO3 nanoparticles were prepared by a solid-state reaction method and applied in photocatalytic degradation of dyes in this study. BiGdO3 was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that BiGdO3 crystallized well with the fluorite-type structure, a face-centered cubic crystal system and a space group Fm3m 225. The lattice parameter of BiGdO3 was 5.465 angstrom. The band gap of BiGdO3 was estimated to be 2.25 eV. BiGdO3 showed a strong optical absorption during the visible light region. Moreover, the photocatalytic activity of BiGdO3 was evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of direct dyes in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. BiGdO3 demonstrated excellent photocatalytic activity in degrading Direct Orange 26 (DO-26) or Direct Red 23 (DR-23) under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic degradation of DO-26 or DR-23 followed the first-order reaction kinetics, and the first-order rate constant was 0.0046 or 0.0023 min−1 with BiGdO3 as catalyst. The degradation intermediates of DO-26 were observed and the possible photocatalytic degradation pathway of DO-26 under visible light irradiation was provided. The effect of various operational parameters on the photocatalytic activity and the stability of BiGdO3 particles were also discussed in detail. BiGdO3/(visible light) photocatalysis system was confirmed to be suitable for textile industry wastewater treatment.

Multifunction bismuth gadolinium oxide nanoparticles as radiosensitizer in radiation therapy and imaging

“…X-ray powder diffraction patterns of the BiGdO 3 nanoparticle are shown in figure 2(A). The results are the same as simulation and experimental x-ray powder diffraction patterns of BiGdO 3 nanoparticles which are reported by Luan et al (2016). Coating PEG on BiGdO 3 nanoparticles was proved by FT-IR spectra.…”

“…In this study, for the first time, BiGdO 3 nanoparticle was prepared by the sol-gel conventional method. However, so far only one paper has been published by Luan et al (2016) in which the BiGdO 3 nanoparticles were synthesized by a different method (by a solid-state reaction method) for photocatalytic activity. The advantage of our method (sol-gel) over the previous work's method is the synthesizing of the nanoparticles with a more simple and inexpensive method.…”

Superparamagnetic and photocatalytic activity of CoCe0.02Dy0.02Fe1.96O4 nanoparticles synthesized by citrate-gel autocombustion technique

“…Semiconductor based technology which utilizes solar energy for the mineralization of textile pollutants has been considered as a green and viable strategy [2]. Many visible light sensitive photocatalysts such as BiVO 4 , Bi 2 O 3 Bi 2 WO 6 , WO 3 and Fe 3 O 4 have been employed for the abatement of organic pollutants [3,4]. But, magnetite with formula MFe 2 O 4 , where M represents the metallic cations like Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Mg and Mn, has attracted a great deal of attention in the remediation of organic pollutants [5,6].…”

Photophysical and Photocatalytic Properties of BiSnSbO6 under Visible Light Irradiation

“…Nasser et al [ 33 ] reported that the energy change caused by Sb doping obviously led to the decrease of the band gap energy of ZnO. Moreover, previous works have shown that the photo-excitation of electrons in an O2p and Bi6s hybrid orbital may result in a charge transfer occurring to a d orbital of the other metal in the composite oxide [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Sn-Sb-Bi composite oxides may respond to visible light irradiation because Sn and Sb respectively occupy 5d orbits in the ground state.…”