Enhanced photocatalytic activity of Bi4Ti3O12 nanosheets by Fe3+-doping and the addition of Au nanoparticles: Photodegradation of Phenol and bisphenol A

By Yongbao Liu, G. Zhu, Jianzhi Gao, M. Hojamberdiev, Runliang Zhu, Xiumei Wei, Quanmin Guo, Peng Liu. 2017

213 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Pure Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (BTO) and Fe-doped Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (Fe/BTO) nanosheets with exposed {001} facets were synthesized by a one-step molten salt method. Au nanoparticles with a diameter range of 20–50 nm were loaded on 2%Fe-doped Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (Au-2%Fe/BTO) nanosheets via a room-temperature hydrogen peroxide reduction method. The UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra showed that the Fe/BTO and Au-2%Fe/BTO samples exhibit an obvious red shift in visible light absorption band in comparison with the pure BTO. Phenol and bisphenol A solutions were chosen as model organic pollutants to verify the influence of Fe 3+ -doping and plasmonic effect of Au nanoparticles on the photocatalytic activity of the catalyst. The Au-2%Fe/BTO sample exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity compared with other samples. The high photocatalytic activity of Au-2%Fe/BTO rises from two contributions: i) the Fe 3+ ion acts as an efficient scavenger to trap electrons, and hence promotes the separation of photo-induced electron-hole pairs; ii) the visible light response of the catalyst is enhanced by the surface plasmon resonance effect from the Au nanoparticles.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9e815006e0227db5195c13ef648f48f68d3c29a