Flame Spray Pyrolysis Engineering of Nanosized Mullite-Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 and Perovskite-BiFeO 3 as Highly Efficient Photocatalysts for O 2 Production from H 2 O Splitting

Pavlos Psathas, Maria Solakidou, Asterios Mantzanis and Yiannis Deligiannakis
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Pavlos Psathas: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Materials and Environment, Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, GR45110 Ioannina, Greece
Maria Solakidou: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Materials and Environment, Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, GR45110 Ioannina, Greece
Asterios Mantzanis: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Materials and Environment, Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, GR45110 Ioannina, Greece
Yiannis Deligiannakis: Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Materials and Environment, Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, GR45110 Ioannina, Greece

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: Bi-Fe oxides are stable materials with potential photocatalytic activity under solar light photons. So far, however the photocatalytic potential of pure-phase nanosized mullite-Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 has not been studied. Usually, synthesis of pure-phase nanosized mullite-Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 is hampered by co-formation with perovskite BiFeO 3 . Herein we demonstrate that pure-phase mullite-Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 nanoparticles prepared by Flame Spray Pyrolysis (FSP) technology are highly efficient O 2 production photocatalysts, achieving >1500 μmol g −1 h −1 . This outperforms all -so far reported- O 2 production Bi-Fe-O photocatalysts. We present an FSP-based process for production of a versatile Bi-Fe-O platform, that can be easily optimized to obtain 100% mullite-Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 or 100% perovskite-BiFeO 3 or their heterojunctions. The phase-evolution of the Bi-Fe-O materials has been studied by XPS, Raman, and EPR spectroscopies. Short post-FSP annealing process impacts the photoactivity of the BiFeO 3 and Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 in distinct ways. Fe 2+ centers in BiFeO 3 can improve dramatically its O 2 production efficiency, while solid-melt formation in Bi 2 Fe 4 O 9 is a limiting factor.

Keywords: Flame Spray Pyrolysis; photocatalysis; Bismuth Iron Oxide; mullite; perovskite; oxygen evolution reaction; defects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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