Synthesis and characterization of cation-doped BiFeO₃ materials for photocatalytic applications

Abstract

A sol-gel method was applied to synthesize Bi_1-xM_xFeO₃ (M = Mg, Al, Y) ceramic materials. Subsequently, these materials were structurally characterized by applying Rietveld refinement techniques. The magnetic properties of the synthesized materials were determined by SQUID measurements and their optical properties (band-gap) were determined by applying diffused reflectance (DR) techniques. The low band-gap nature of these materials enabled to them exhibit photocatalytic activity and accordingly 2% Y doped BiFeO₃ samples exhibited higher photocatalytic effect (18% compared to 14% for undoped). Under identical conditions, TiO₂standard exhibited only 7% degradation indicating superior properties of cation-doped bismuth ferrites.