Effect of annealing temperature of bismuth ferrite on morphology, magnetic properties and the photocatalytic degradation of sodium salt of 4–dimethylaminoazobenzene–4–sulfonic acid dye

Abstract

Industrial waste water management includes the removal of colour making pigments and dyes from them, which is a
tedious task. Green and recyclable methods to remove the pigments are the need of the present. Among various methods,
Photocatalytic approach are becoming quite popular now-a-days. This paper reveals the studies on photocatalytic effect of
multiferroic bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanoparticles for water treatment. The BFO nanoparticles have been synthesized by sol-
gel technique and annealed between 300°C and 700°C and were characterized by FT– IR, XRD, SEM, PL and VSM
studies. The photocatalytic activity of BFO has been studied in aqueous solution of Sodium salt of 4 –
dimethylaminoazobenzene – 4 – sulfonic acid dye, the well-known Methyl Orange (MO), using various pH of 2, 7 and10
under sun light irradiation. The absorption magnitude is higher for BFO – 400 and the band gap was found to be 1.88 eV.
The morphology and surface studies indicates the nano characteristics of the BFO samples. Further the photoluminescence
studies revealed the enhanced photocatalytic property of BFO – 400 sample which can effectively be used for waste water
management applications