Photocatalytic activity enhancement by addition of lanthanum into the BiFeO3 structure and the effect of synthesis method

TL;DR

This study investigates how lanthanum addition and different synthesis methods affect the physical, magnetic, ferroelectric, and photocatalytic properties of BiFeO3-based nanocrystals, demonstrating enhanced dye degradation under visible light.

Contribution

It introduces lanthanum doping into BiFeO3 and compares sol-gel and hydrothermal synthesis methods, revealing their impacts on properties and photocatalytic efficiency.

Findings

Lanthanum doping enhances photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue.

Hydrothermal synthesis influences nanoparticle size, shape, and magnetic properties.

Doped samples show improved ferroelectric and magnetic behaviors.

Abstract

In this paper, the photocatalytic activity of multiferroics BiFeO3 (BFO) and Bi0.8La0.2FeO3 (BLFO) nanocrystals with two different morphologies which were synthesized by two different sol-gel (SG) and hydrothermal (HT) methods have been studied. All the obtained samples were characterized using X-ray diffractometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy and vibrating sample magnetometer. Differential thermal analysis (DTA) measurements were probed ferroelectric- paraelectric first-order phase transition (TC) for all samples. Addition of lanthanum decreases the electric phase transition. For photocatalyst application of bismuth ferrite, adsorption potential of nanoparticles for methylene blue (MB) organic dye was evaluated. The doping of La in the BFO structure enhanced the photocatalytic activity and about 71% degradation of MB dye was obtained under visible irradiation. The magnetic and ferroelectric properties of BLFO nanoparticles improve compared to the undoped BiFeO3 nanoparticles. The non-saturation at high applied magnetic field for as-prepared samples by HT is related to the size and shape of products. This work not only presents an effect of lanthanum substitution into the bismuth ferrite structure on the physical properties of BFO, but also compares the synthesis method and its influence on the photocatalytic activity and multiferroics properties of all nanopowders.