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Synthesis of sillenite-type Bi36Fe2O57 and elemental bismuth with visible-light photocatalytic activity for water treatment

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Abstract

With Fe(NO3)3·9H2O and Bi(NO3)3·5H2O as raw materials, different sillenite-type compounds and elemental bismuth were prepared by a facile one-pot solvothermal method using H2O, C2H5OH, (CH2OH)2 and C3H8O3 as solvents, respectively. The structure, morphology, elemental compositions and properties of samples were examined by XRD, SEM, TEM, ICP, XPS, N2 adsorption and desorption, UV-vis DRS and PL. The photocatalytic activities of different samples were evaluated by the photodegradation of RhB under visible-light irradiation (λ > 400 nm), and results show that Bi36Fe2O57 prepared using C2H5OH as the solvent owns the optimum performance. In order to explore the reaction mechanism, an additional experiment was designed to investigate the main active species during the photodegradation process via dissolving different trapping agents in the reaction solution before light irradiation. The results show that superoxide radical anions play a major role in this system since the RhB degradation was significantly suppressed after the addition of benzoquinone.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for Young Scientists of Shanxi Province (201601D021134), the Scientific Research Foundation for Young Scientists of Taiyuan University of Science and Technology (20153008), the Start-up Fund for Doctorate Scientific Research Project of Taiyuan University of Science and Technology (20152017), and the Shanxi Provincial Student’s Platform for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (2016282).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environment and Safety, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Chuan Deng, Xianxian Wei, Yajie Du, Lei Pan, Xiang Zhong & Jianhua Song

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Chuan Deng & Ruixiang Liu

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  1. Chuan Deng
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  2. Xianxian Wei
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Correspondence to Xianxian Wei.

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Deng, C., Wei, X., Liu, R. et al. Synthesis of sillenite-type Bi36Fe2O57 and elemental bismuth with visible-light photocatalytic activity for water treatment. Front. Mater. Sci. 12, 415–425 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11706-018-0442-z

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