Synthesis and characterization of Bismuth titanate perovskite materials for hydrogen production

Abstract

In this work, a simple, low-cost, precursor free and a single step synthetic technique has been used for synthesis of Bismuth titanate (BT) perovskite nanomaterials, under surfactant free conditions. The powdered X-ray diffraction method has been employed for confirmation of crystal structure and surface morphology of synthesized nanoparticles were confirmed by FESEM analysis. The nanoparticles showed the band gap of 3.25 eV, calculated with the help of Tauc plot by diffused reflectance spectroscopy (DRS-UV). The efficiency of nanoparticles to act as photocatalyst was assessed by hydrogen evolution reaction carried out by water splitting, utilizing a photochemical cell reactor having xenon lamp. The reaction was carried out in the presence of triethanolamine (TEOA) and methanol acting as scavengers. It was reported that maximum hydrogen yield 39.24 µmol/g was obtained with methanol.