부산대학교 도서관

BiFeO.sub.3 is the model multiferroic material widely considered as nanoparticles for its potential photocatalytic activity. In this work, we study the influence of annealing temperature on the structural, morphological and optical properties of BiFeO.sub.3 nanoparticles prepared by a facile chemical route and, the resulting photodegradation of Eosin B dye. When annealing temperature as low as 600 °C is used, some parasitic phases such as Bi.sub.2Fe.sub.4O.sub.9 appear in addition to the BiFeO.sub.3 phase. At the same time, the energy of the absorption onset and band gap shifts down and the photocatalytic activity toward Eosin B dye significantly increases by ~27% when UV light is used while only a small if any, enhancement is observed in case of sunlight illumination. This photocatalytic enhancement could be therefore essentially attributed to the presence of secondary parasitic phases that could also explain previous reported observations. Furthermore, annealing at 500 °C to obtain pure parasitic-phase-free BiFeO.sub.3 nanopowder reveals excellent photodegradation of Eosin B reaching 95% efficiency after 40 min under sunlight illumination with good photostability after three consecutive degradation cycles. Graphical abstract
Author(s): Wafa Amdouni [sup.1] [sup.2], Lluís Yedra [sup.2], Mojca Otonicar [sup.3], Pascale Gemeiner [sup.2], Brahim Dkhil [sup.2], Hager Maghraoui-Meherzi [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.12574.35, 0000000122959819, Laboratoire de Chimie Analytique et [...]