Influence of molar ratio of metal ions to citric acid and annealing temperature on structure and photocatalytic properties of YFeO3 photocatalysts synthesized by sol-gel method
Abstract
YFeO 3 materials, which were successfully synthesized by the sol-gel method, were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Ultraviolet-Visible Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). The influence of the synthesizing conditions such as the molar ratio of metal ions to citric acid, and the annealing temperature on the structure and photocatalytic properties of YFeO 3 samples has been systematically investigated. The experimental results show that all obtained YFeO 3 samples exhibit photocatalytic activities under the visible light region through the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) in an aqueous solution. Specifically, the YFeO 3 sample, which was synthesized with the molar ratio of 1: 2 metal ions/citric acid and annealed at 900 o C, shows the highest photocatalytic degradation efficiency compared to YFeO 3 samples synthesized under the same conditions but annealed at other temperatures.