Poster Presentation

¹Mina Ghorbani ; ²Saeed Sheibani; ²Hossein Abdizadeh; ³Mohammad Reza Golobostanfard

¹School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

²School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

³School Of Metallurgy and Materials Eng., College of Eng., University of Tehran

In the present research, bismuth ferrite-graphene oxide nanocomposite has been studied as a photocatalytic material for the removal of water pollution. Multiferroic BiFeO3 (BFO) powders were synthesized by a facile and cost-effective sol-gel method using bismuth nitrate and iron nitrate. Graphene oxide (GO) was sonicated and added to the BFO sol (1 wt.%), then the dried BFO-GO gel was annealed at 600 °C in an argon environment. The structure and morphology of the BFO-GO nanocomposite are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Also, the band gap and optical properties are explored by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). XRD results show the BFO-GO nanocomposite has a perovskite structure and is mainly composed of a rhombohedral BiFeO3 phase (R-phase) with a minor impurity phase of Bi25FeO40 and Bi2Fe4O9. FESEM depicts that the BFO nanoparticles are homogenously grafted on and around the GO sheets. The band gap of the BFO-GO nanocomposite is around 1.8 eV. The photocatalytic characteristic of the BFO-GO is investigated by photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) aqueous solution under visible light. The degradation efficiency of 70% after 300 min visible light irradiation is obtained. The BFO-GO nanocomposite powder exhibits significant photocatalytic behavior because the structural, morphological, and optical properties of BFO are greatly modified and enhanced by adding GO.

BiFeO3; Graphene oxide; Sol-gel; Photocatalyst; Nanocomposite