Synergistic combination of BiFeO3 nanorods and CeVO4 nanoparticles for enhanced visible light driven photocatalytic activity

Eliminating harmful organic pollutants from contaminated water remains an urgent problem to be solved. Taking Rhodamine B (RhB) as a representative organic water pollutant we sought to design a facile and scalable synthesis of a BiFeO3/CeVO4 (BFO/CVO) nanocomposite catalyst for the degradation of organic pollutant under visible light. BFO nanorods and CVO nanoparticles were fabricated using single-step hydrothermal routes and the resulting materials could be easily combined using a simple wet-chemical precipitation method. From the morphological studies, pure BiFeO3 and CeVO4 revealed the 1D-nanorod and 0D-nanoparticles, respectively. For the BFO/CVO composite, 0D-nanoparticles were well attached on the 1D-nanorods of BiFeO3. Also, the 10 % BFO/CVO composite provided efficient photodegradation efficiency (92 %) of RhB with 0.0225 min−1 rate constant. Furthermore, the obtained photocatalyst had a low band gap energy value (2.01 eV) and photoluminescence intensity when compared to pure BFO and CVO under visible light illumination. The radical scavenging experiments proposed that the •OH acted a substantial role in the RhB decomposition pathway. The optimized BFO/CVO composite photocatalyst exhibits superior recyclability and photostability. The superior photocatalytic action of the 10 % BFO/CVO composite could be explained by the development of a heterojunction among BFO and CVO where electrons can migrate at the BFO/CVO interface. These results imply that BiFeO3/CeVO4 composites are suitable photocatalysts for the elimination of organic toxins from water.