Abstract
A comprehensive comparison between BiFeO3-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposite and Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposite has been performed to investigate their photocatalytic abilities in degradation of Rhodamine B dye and generation of hydrogen by water-splitting. The hydrothermal technique adapted for synthesis of the nanocomposites provides a versatile temperature-controlled phase selection between perovskite BiFeO3 and sillenite Bi25FeO40. Both perovskite and sillenite structured nanocomposites are stable and exhibit considerably higher photocatalytic ability over pure BiFeO3 nanoparticles and commercially available Degussa P25 titania. Notably, Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposite has demonstrated superior photocatalytic ability and stability under visible light irradiation than that of BiFeO3-rGO nanocomposite. The possible mechanism behind the superior photocatalytic performance of Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposite has been critically discussed.
Highlights
High expenses associated with fabrication of complex optoelectronic devices, coupled with their poor conversion efficiency, limits the use of abundant solar energy from the sun[1,2,3,4,5]
The diffraction peaks exhibited by both BiFeO3 and BiFeO3-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) conform to the single-phase perovskite structure (R3c space group) of BiFeO3 (JCPDS card No 86–1518)
The average particle size of the synthesized nanomaterials has been obtained from particle size histograms extracted from their field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) images
Summary
High expenses associated with fabrication of complex optoelectronic devices, coupled with their poor conversion efficiency, limits the use of abundant solar energy from the sun[1,2,3,4,5]. The formation of a heterojunction with graphene may improve the photocatalytic hydrogen production ability of both BiFeO3 and Bi25FeO40 by reducing their work functions and modifying the band energetics. We have demonstrated a hydrothermal synthesis process for BFO-rGO nanocomposites that can be utilized to obtain both perovskite (BiFeO3-rGO) and sillenite (Bi25FeO40-rGO) structures by tuning the hydrothermal reaction temperature[38]. In this present investigation, we have compared the performance of BiFeO3-rGO and Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposites to that of both pristine BiFeO3 nanoparticles and commercially available Degussa P25 titania nanoparticles in photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye and photocatalytic hydrogen production via water-splitting. We have critically assessed the possible mechanism behind the superior photocatalytic performance of Bi25FeO40-rGO nanocomposite
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