Hydrothermal synthesis, influencing factors and excellent photocatalytic performance of novel nanoparticle-assembled Bi₂₅FeO₄₀tetrahedrons

Abstract

Novel nanoparticle-assembled Bi25FeO40 (BFO) tetrahedrons with relatively good dispersion were successfully synthesized through a facile, mild and rapid hydrothermal process. The phases and morphologies of the samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Such sillenite-type BFO tetrahedrons were found to be fabricated by abundant nanoparticles with single crystalline nature. Some influencing factors including reaction time, temperature and the amount of additives (e.g., polyacrylamide, sodium citrate and sodium hydroxide) were revealed to play crucial roles in the generation of this BFO nanoarchitecture. Moreover, the visible light-driven photocatalytic activities of the BFO products were investigated.