Articles
  • Sonochemical synthesis, characterization and evaluation of photocatalytic activities of Ag/BiFeO3 photocatalysts
  • Hoang Phuc Nguyena, Gobinda Gyawalia, Tae Ho Kima and Soo Wohn Leeb,*
  • a Research Center for Eco Multi-Functional Nano Materials, Sun Moon University, Asan, South Korea b Department of Environmental & Bio-Chemical Engineering, Sun Moon University, Asan, South Korea
Abstract
Being a visible-light responsive semiconductor, BiFeO3 (BFO) is considered as a potential material for photocatalysis. To enhance the photocatalytic efficiency, in this work, BiFeO3 was dispersed with various amount of Ag. Morphologies and phases of the as-synthesized samples were evaluated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was used to analyse the absorption properties. The photocatalytic activities of the products were evaluated via the photocatalytic degradation of aqueous rhodamine-B (RhB) solution under simulated solar-light irradiation. The results indicated the important role of Ag nanoparticles on improving catalytic efficiency of BiFeO3. The enhancement in the photocatalytic activity is explained on the basis of surface plasmon resonance effect of the dispersed Ag nanoparticles over the surface of BiFeO3.

Keywords: BiFeO3, Ag nanoparticle, Photocatalyst, Rhodamine B, Surface plasmon resonance.

This Article

  • 2016; 17(5): 439-442

    Published on May 31, 2016