Role of cooperative factors in the photocatalytic activity of Ba and Mn doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles

Astita Dubey; Alexander Schmitz; Vladimir V Shvartsman; Gerd Bacher; Doru C Lupascu; Marianela Escobar Castillo

doi:10.1039/d1na00420d

Role of cooperative factors in the photocatalytic activity of Ba and Mn doped BiFeO₃ nanoparticles

Nanoscale Adv. 2021 Aug 26;3(20):5830-5840. doi: 10.1039/d1na00420d. eCollection 2021 Oct 12.

Authors

Astita Dubey¹, Alexander Schmitz², Vladimir V Shvartsman¹, Gerd Bacher², Doru C Lupascu¹, Marianela Escobar Castillo¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Materials Science and Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen 45141 Essen Germany astita.dubey@uni-due.de.
² Werkstoffe der Elektrotechnik & CENIDE, Universität Duisburg-Essen Bismarckstraße 81 47057 Duisburg Germany.

Abstract

The escalated photocatalytic (PC) efficiency of the visible light absorber Ba-doped BiFe_0.95Mn_0.05O₃ (BFM) nanoparticles (NPs) as compared to BiFeO₃ (BFO) NPs is reported for the degradation of the organic pollutants rhodamine B and methyl orange. 1 mol% Ba-doped-BFM NPs degrade both dyes within 60 and 25 minutes under UV + visible illumination, respectively. The Ba and Mn co-doping up to 5 mol% in BFO NPs increases the specific surface area, energy of d-d transitions, and PC efficiency of the BFO NPs. The maximum PC efficiency found in 1 mol% Ba doped BFM NPs is attributed to a cooperative effect of factors like its increased light absorption ability, large surface area, active surface, reduced recombination of charge carriers, and spontaneous polarization to induce charge carrier separation. The 1 mol% Ba and 5 mol% Mn co-incorporation is found to be the optimum dopant concentration for photocatalytic applications. These properties of co-doped BFO NPs can, e.g., be exploited in the field of water splitting.