Facile synthesis of Sm-doped BiFeO3 nanoparticles for enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance

In this work, the effect of Sm doping on the structural and photocatalytic properties of BiFeO3 (BFO) was investigated. A series of Sm doped BFO nanoparticles containing different Sm dopant contents (Bi(1-x)SmxFeO3, x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.10) were synthesized via a simple sol-gel route. It was revealed that Sm3+ ions were successfully doped into BFO nanoparticles, and the band gap value was gradually decreased when increasing Sm dopant concentration. The photocatalytic activity of Sm-doped BFO photocatalyst was significantly affected by the Sm doping content. Compared to pure BFO, the Sm-doped BFO samples exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity. The improved photocatalytic activity of Sm-doped BFO could be attributed to the enhanced visible light absorption and the efficient separation of photogenerated electrons and holes derived from Sm dopant trapping level in the Sm-doped BFO samples. In addition, the possible photocatalytic mechanism of Sm-doped BFO photocatalyst was also proposed. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.