Eledath Manjusha, Viswanathan Shalini, Kallingal Aparna, Chandran Maneesh
Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala 673601, India.
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala 673601, India.
J Chem Phys. 2023 Aug 7;159(5). doi: 10.1063/5.0151347.
Recent advances in photocatalysis include the development of floating catalysts since they assure efficient and rapid recollection of the catalysts from the purified liquid, besides enhancing the availability of photons at the catalytic surface. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3 and BFO) is a multifunctional perovskite material renowned for its excellent photocatalytic properties. Since bandgap of BFO falls in the visible spectrum, BFO nanoparticles could be combined with a suitable floating substrate to develop efficient visible light photocatalysts. Here, we report the synthesis of BFO-polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) hybrids for photocatalytic applications, where sol-gel-synthesized BFO nanoparticles are immobilized on a floating porous PDMS sponge. The successful incorporation of the nanoparticles on PDMS is confirmed using Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of the floating catalysts was studied by monitoring the degradation of malachite green dye under visible light irradiation. The effect of the amount of BFO immobilized, and the area and thickness of the PDMS sponge on the photocatalytic activity of the floating catalysts were investigated. An efficiency of 80.5% was obtained when the weight of BFO immobilized on the PDMS sponge was 5 mg. The method yields degradation efficiencies comparable with or higher than that of conventional BFO powder catalysts, even with 6-18 times less catalyst loading. The method introduces the fabrication of recyclable floating photocatalysts of notable efficiency using significantly less amount of BFO nanoparticles, which could be further modified by approaches such as doping, functionalization, or composite formation.
光催化领域的最新进展包括浮动催化剂的开发，因为它们不仅能提高光子在催化表面的利用率，还能确保从纯化液体中高效快速地回收催化剂。铋铁氧体（BiFeO₃，简称BFO）是一种多功能钙钛矿材料，以其优异的光催化性能而闻名。由于BFO的带隙落在可见光范围内，BFO纳米颗粒可以与合适的浮动基质结合，以开发高效的可见光光催化剂。在此，我们报道了用于光催化应用的BFO-聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）杂化物的合成，其中通过溶胶-凝胶法合成的BFO纳米颗粒被固定在浮动的多孔PDMS海绵上。利用拉曼光谱、扫描电子显微镜和能量色散X射线光谱证实了纳米颗粒成功地掺入到PDMS中。通过监测可见光照射下孔雀石绿染料的降解来研究浮动催化剂的光催化活性。研究了固定化BFO的量、PDMS海绵的面积和厚度对浮动催化剂光催化活性的影响。当固定在PDMS海绵上的BFO重量为5 mg时，获得了80.5%的效率。该方法产生的降解效率与传统BFO粉末催化剂相当或更高，即使催化剂负载量减少6至18倍。该方法引入了使用显著少量的BFO纳米颗粒制备具有显著效率的可回收浮动光催化剂，这可以通过掺杂、功能化或复合形成等方法进一步改性。
