Synthesis of Nanoparticulate PrFeO3 by Sol-Gel Method and its Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity

Perovskite rare-earth ferrate PrFeO3 is a new kind of photocatalytic material. Using Fe(NO3)(3)center dot 9H(2)O, Pr(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O, citric acid and urea as main raw materials, the gel of PrFeO3 was prepared by sol-gel method. The gel was kept at 80 degrees C for 48 h to make xerogel. Then, the xerogel was calcined in muffle furnace at 800 degrees C to obtain PrFeO3 samples. The structure and morphology of samples were characterized by thermogravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The results showed that the perovskite structure PrFeO(3)was obtained through sol-gel method. The resulting products have a particle size of 80 nm and an optical band gap of 2.4 eV. Consequently, the PrFeO3 nanoparticles showed high photocatalytic activities for decomposition of methyl orange under visible-light irradiation. The PrFeO3 samples are consistent with first-order kinetics for the degradation of methyl orange. And the apparent rate constants is k = 0.071 min(-1).