Various morphologies of BFO film by Electrophoretic deposition: photocatalytic degradation of phenol

Abstract

Morphology has a key role in heterogeneous photocatalytic processes. Herein, various morphologies of bismuth ferrite (BFO) synthesized by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) as a simple, reproducible and cost-effective method. A homogeneous BFO film with low-porosity synthesized from an aqueous suspension including of charged nanoparticles. On the other hands, forest like BFO film was obtained from sol-suspension (including nanoclusters with size ranging from 10-100 nm) by EPD method. SEM images of films were depicted in Fig.1. Both films applied for photocatalytic degradation of phenol in an aqueous solution. Results showed that the forest like film has higher degradation efficiency than homogeneous film. Forest like film was included nanobranches (100-150 nm) as routs for electron transferring and separating of hole-electrons. Furthermore, nanobranches acted as cites for harvesting and multi-scattering of visible light. Therefore, special morphology can led to high photocatalytic efficiency. <br> <br>Figure 1: (a) Homogenous and (b) Forest like BFO films<br><br>Reference: <br>[1]\tL. Hyvärinen, J.-P. Nikkanen, M. Järveläinen, E. Levänen, S. Heinonen, H. Hakola, E. Huttunen-Saarivirta, M. Kannisto, Effect of temperature and concentration of precursors on morphology and photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide thin films prepared by hydrothermal route, IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 123 (2016) 012030-021037.<br>[2]\tD.A.H. Hanaor, G. Triani, C.C. Sorrell, Morphology and photocatalytic activity of highly oriented mixed phase titanium dioxide thin films, Surf. Coatings Technol. 205 (2011) 3658–3664.