Experimental and Theoretical Investigations of Low-Dimensional BiFeO3 System for Photocatalytic Applications

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of sub-20 nm BiFeO3 (BFO) nanoparticles using a solid-state approach and preferential leching process. The nanoparticles were subsequently used to deposit, through spray pyrolysis, BFO thin films in a rhombohedral (R3c) crystallographic structure. Then, systematic investigations of the optical and the photocatalytic properties were conducted to determine the effects of the particles size, the microstructure and the increased surface area on their catalytic performances. Especially, improved optical properties were observed, with an optical bandgap energy of 2.20 eV compared to reported 2.7 eV for the bulk system. In addition, high optical absorption was obtained in the UV–visible light region reaching up to 90% at 400 nm. The photoelectrochemical measurements revealed a high photocurrent density under visible light irradiation. Besides, density functional theory calculations were performed on both bulk and thin film BFO structures, revealing an interesting comparison of the electronic, magnetic, ferroelectric and optical properties for bulk and thin film BFO systems. Both theoretical and experimental findings show that the alignment of the band edges of BFO thin film is coherent with good photocatalytic water splitting potential, making them desirable photoanode materials.