Sol-gel extended hydrothermal synthesis of BiFeO3 nano-beads for excellent photocatalytic and photo-electrochemical properties under natural light irradiation

Abstract

The synthesized BiFeO3haslow cost,distinctive structure,large specific surface area, and outstanding electrical and mechanical properties, making itstable, non-toxic, and cost-effective material that can be used in photocatalytic applications. Here, we report the successful synthesis of a pure-phase BiFeO3nano-beads through a well-controlled sol–gel extended hydrothermal strategy. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of as-prepared BiFeO3nano-beads were studied by X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and Ultraviolet–visible–near-infrared (UV–vis–NIR) transmittance spectrophotometer. It was observed that BiFeO3nano-beads exhibit strong absorption in the UV and visible light region and the corresponding lowest band gap has been estimated to be 2.13 eV. The photo-electrochemical (PEC) properties of the prepared photo-anodes were analyzed with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and chronoamperometry analysis (CA). Electron transfer of the charge carriers and transient photo-current response were enhanced for BiFeO3nano-beads as studied by EIS and CA. The as-prepared BiFeO3nano-beads showed excellent photocatalytic and photo-electrochemical (PEC) properties for enhanced degradation of methylene blue (MB) and hydrogen evolution activity (14.7 mmol g−1h−1) in the presence of Platinum asco-catalyst were carried out under natural light irradiation at ambient temperature.