A unique and facile preparation of lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles in emulsion nanoreactors: Morphology, structure, and efficient photocatalysis

Lanthanum ferrite nanoparticles (LaFeO3 NPs) with light absorption properties in the visible region were successfully synthesized in CTAB (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) emulsion nanoreactors at room temperature. The morphology, size, structure, elemental composition, and optical properties of these particles were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and ultraviolet-visible absorption (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. Through this method, highly crystalline and well-dispersed perovskite LaFeO3 NPs with a phase-pure were successfully obtained. The band gap energy (E-g) of the LaFeO3 NPs was calculated by UV-Vis spectroscopy at the wavelength of about 517 nm and is observed to have a value of 2.43 eV. The photocatalytic activities of LaFeO3 NPs were evaluated by the degradation of toluidine blue O (TBO, used as a probe) dye under visible light irradiation, which exhibits a high photocatalytic TBO dye degradation activity as compared to the commercial P-25 titania powder. This phenomenon is due to smaller band gap energy and changing from bulk to nanostructure. The higher photocatalytic activity is also related to the photo absorption. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.