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Facial-hydroxylated pure-phase BiFeO3 with controllable micro-morphology: performance as a highly efficient visible light photocatalyst

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Abstract

The pure-phase BiFeO3 crystals with distinguished micro-morphologies were successfully prepared by a novel coprecipitation-hydrothermal collaborative synthesis method. Hydroxylation technique was innovatively employed to hydroxylate BiFeO3 samples. XPS and PL spectra proved that hydroxylation treatment indeed introduced more ·OH radicals on the surfaces of the BiFeO3 samples. Sample E (hydroxylated BiFeO3 ultra-thin slices) showed the highest photocatalytic activity. Hydroxylated BiFeO3 prepared in this work also showed high activities in water photo-oxidation reactions for producing oxygen gas. All hydroxylated samples showed notably enhanced photocatalytic activities due to the large specific surface areas, strong visible light responses, diminished recombination rates of the photo-excited carriers and excess ·OH radicals introduced by surface hydroxylation. All BiFeO3 samples showed good photochemical stabilities for reusage. This work provides valuable contributions in the future preparations and applications for BiFeO3 photocatalysts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Solar energy efficient application of Hubei province Collaborative Innovation Center open funding (Nos. HBSKFMS 2014017, 337188 and HBSKFQN20167004) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11604089 and 11605050). The authors would like to acknowledge the technicians from Testing & Analysis Center of HBUT who helped us for sample characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, 430068, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Liu, Guowang Xu, Hui Lv, Yiwan Chen, Gang Deng, Ling Pei & Zhengfu Tong

  2. Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for High-efficiency Utilization of Solar Energy, Wuhan, 430068, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Liu, Hui Lv, Gang Deng, Ling Pei & Zhengfu Tong

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  1. Yang Liu
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Liu, Y., Xu, G., Lv, H. et al. Facial-hydroxylated pure-phase BiFeO3 with controllable micro-morphology: performance as a highly efficient visible light photocatalyst. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 9117–9128 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-8939-x

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