Facile synthesis of Gd and Sn co-doped BiFeO3 supported on nitrogen doped graphene for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Congo Red Dye Degradation by Graphene Nanoplatelets/Doped Bismuth Ferrite Nanoparticle Hybrid Catalysts under Dark and Light Conditions

“…In addition, the BFO particle size was reduced from 46 nm to 21.5 for BGFSO-5, 21.6 for BGFSO-15, 23 nm for BGFSO-20 and 23.5 nm for BGFSO-25 because of doping. The XRD patterns for co-doped BFO have also been observed and previously published with similar kinds of planes and peaks [23,31].…”

“…Co-substitution of bismuth and iron inside bismuth ferrite has been reported many times with enhanced electric, magnetic and photocatalytic properties [28][29][30]. Based on published reports, rare-earth metal doping, inside BFO, improved its physical and chemical properties drastically [16][17][18][19]23,31]. The doping of Sn on B site of BFO has shown a good tuned structure for catalytic and sensing applications [10].…”

“…The substitution of Gd on the A site of BFO has shown enhanced ferromagnetism and visible light catalytic effects with improved surface chemistry [21,22]. A few reports have also been published on the doping of Gadolinium (Gd) and Tin (Sn), showing enhanced photocatalytic properties of the prepared co-doped nanoparticles and hybrid systems [17,23,31]. The substitution of Gd and Sn inside BFO transforms the lattice structure from rhombohedral to distorted rhombohedral, and then to orthorhombic due to unit cell expansion, as a result of the ionic radii difference among Bi 3+ (1.03 Å), Gd 3+ (0.938 Å), Sn 4+ (1.09 Å) and Fe 3+ (0.78 Å) [17,23,31].…”

“…A few reports have also been published on the doping of Gadolinium (Gd) and Tin (Sn), showing enhanced photocatalytic properties of the prepared co-doped nanoparticles and hybrid systems [17,23,31]. The substitution of Gd and Sn inside BFO transforms the lattice structure from rhombohedral to distorted rhombohedral, and then to orthorhombic due to unit cell expansion, as a result of the ionic radii difference among Bi 3+ (1.03 Å), Gd 3+ (0.938 Å), Sn 4+ (1.09 Å) and Fe 3+ (0.78 Å) [17,23,31]. The addition of Sn and Gd inside BFO also tuned the band-gap of the system, which in turns, assists in fast electron-hole pair generation for higher photocatalytic activity.…”

“…GNP hybrids with MgO has be used, and has shown good photocatalytic activity in the degradation of organic dye methyl orange [42]. On the other hand, graphene hybrids with BFO and co-doped BFO has shown a good catalytic behavior with high surface area, more active sites for carriers and low band-gap [14,16,31]. All these properties play a key role in the removal of organic contaminants.…”