BiFeO 3 -Black TiO 2 Composite as a Visible Light Active Photocatalyst for the Degradation of Methylene Blue

• Published in: ACS omega Vol. 8; no. 21; pp. 18653 - 18662
• Main Authors: Banoth, Pravallika, Kandula, Chinna, Lavudya, Praveen Kumar, Akaram, Saidulu, De Los Santos Valladares, Luis, Ammanabrolu, RajaniKanth, Mamidipudi, Ghanashyam Krishna, Kollu, Pratap
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 30.05.2023
• ISSN: 2470-1343; 2470-1343
• DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.3c00553

The application of a novel BiFeO (BFO)-black TiO (BTO) composite (called BFOT) as a photocatalyst for the degradation of methylene blue is reported. The p-n heterojunction photocatalyst was synthesized for the first time through microwave-assisted co-precipitation synthesis to change the molar ratio of BTO in BiFeO to increase the photocatalytic efficiency of the BiFeO photocatalyst. The UV-visible properties of p-n heterostructures showed excellent absorption of visible light and reduced electron-hole recombination properties compared to the pure-phase BFO. Photocatalytic studies on BFOT10, BFOT20, and BFOT30 have shown that they decompose methylene blue (MB) in sunlight better than pure-phase BFO in 70 min. The BFOT30 photocatalyst was the most effective at reducing MB when exposed to visible light (97%). Magnetic studies have shown that BTO is diamagnetic, and the BFOT10 photocatalyst exhibits a very weak antiferromagnetic behavior, whereas BFOT20 and BFO30 show diamagnetic behavior. This study confirms that the catalyst has poor stability and weak magnetic recovery properties due to the non-magnetic phase BTO in the BFO.