Development and characterization of visible light driven Ba2YBiO6 photocatalyst for the degradation of organic compounds

Abstract

Visible-light-driven photocatalyst Ba2YBiO6 was successfully synthesized as nanoparticles by a low temperature sol-gel technique for the first time. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the synthesized material has a complex cubic perovskite (A2BB’O6) structure. The phase purity of the nanopowder has been confirmed using thermal analysis (TG- DTA) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The morphological characterization of the nanopowder was performed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The TEM investigation confirmed the nanoscale (20–40 nm) nature of the powder. The SEM micrograph of the powder showed that the grain size ranges from 0.07 to 0.21 µm. The EDS pattern revealed the existence of Ba, Y, Bi and O without any noticeable impurities. The band gap energy of Ba2YBiO6 observed by UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS) was 2.77eV. This indicated that Ba2YBiO6 might perform well as a photocatalyst in the visible light region. Photocatalytic activity of Ba2YBiO6 nanoparticles was investigated for the degradation of methyl orange and methylene blue under visible light irradiation.