Tailoring the structural and optical properties of bismuth oxide films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering for photocatalytic application

XPS Study in BiFeO3 Surface Modified by Argon Etching

“…Figure 6a exhibits Bi 4 f at 0 s, with doublets peak around 158.7 and 164.2 eV corresponding an oxidation state Bi 3+ . These values agree with other BFO works [13,35], and they are close to bismuth oxide Bi 2 O 3 [36,37]. A peak related to metallic bismuth does not appear (just like in Bi 5d at 0 s) confirming that deposition in a low argon atmosphere is not enough to produce metallic species.…”

Reactive sputtering onto an ionic liquid, a new synthesis route for bismuth-based nanoparticles

“…It is important to notice that, to be reproducible, experiments in reactive sputtering should follow a precise process, already explained in previous works. 23 Prior to any synthesis, the target was sputtered in pure Ar plasma ( Φ Ar = 30 sccm) at 50 W in order to remove any compound at the target surface. This step of at least 30 min lasted until the target self-bias voltage reached the value corresponding to a metallic target.…”

“…Moreover, in such field, Bibased compounds, like oxide or oxyfluorides, were also investigated as valuable photocatalytic materials. 23,24 For applications in photocatalysis, it is then crucial to control the materials' composition and to nanostructure them to increase their specific surface area. Hence, it would be particularly interesting to be able to form nanoparticles not only of metallic Bismuth, but also of Bi-based compounds, taking advantage of the high versatility of the reactive sputtering techniques in material composition control.…”

The photocatalytic degradation of a binary textile dyes mixture within a new configuration of loop reactor using ZnO thin film-phytotoxicity control

“…The electron reacts with dissolved oxygen to generate the superoxide radicals O •− 2 , while the hole oxidizes the water molecule and/or OH − so as to form the OH • species. The latter is the most powerful radical found in nature since it is nonselective, i.e., it attacks all types of organic matter and converts it into simple hydrocarbons, water, and inorganic salts [56,[71][72][73].…”