Synthesis and Characterization of Pyrochlore Bi2Sn2O7 Doping with Praseodymium by Hydrothermal Method and Its Photocatalytic Activity Study

• Published in: International journal of photoenergy Vol. 2013; no. 2013; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: Fang, Jianzhang, Xu, Weicheng, Cen, Chaoping, Chen, YunFang, Liu, Zhang, Zhou, Guangyin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Puplishing Corporation 01.01.2013; Hindawi Publishing Corporation; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Adsorption; Air pollution; Aqueous solutions; Efficiency; Light; Semiconductors
• ISSN: 1110-662X; 1687-529X
• DOI: 10.1155/2013/234806

Praseodymium doped Bi2Sn2O7 (BSO), as a visible-light responsive photocatalyst, was prepared by a hydrothermal method with different dopant contents. The as-prepared photocatalysts were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), N2 adsorption-desorption isotherm, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis (XPS), and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The photocatalytic activity of prepared catalysts was evaluated by the degradation of Rhodamine Bextra (RhB) and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) in aqueous solution under visible light irradiation. It was found that Pr doping inhibited the growth of crystalline size and the as-prepared materials were small in size (10–20 nm). In our experiments, Pr-doped BSO samples exhibited enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity compared to the undoped BSO, and the optimal dopant amount of Pr was 1.0 mol% for the best photocatalytic activity. On the basis of the calculated PL spectra, the mechanism of enhanced photocatalytic activity has been discussed.