Articles
  • Controlled band energetics in Pb-Fe-Nb-O metal oxide composite system to fabricate efficient visible light photocatalyst
  • K Vijayasankara, Neha Y. Hebalkara, H.G.Kimb,* and Pramod H. Borsea,*
  • a International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARC International), Balapur PO, Hyderabad, AP, 500 005, India b Korea Basic Science Institute, Busan center Busan 609-735, Korea
Abstract
We report here an efficient Pb-Fe-Nb-O based composite oxide photocatalyst prepared by simple solid-state reaction method. The low band gap semiconductors of Pb2FeNbO6, FeNbO4, and composite (Pb2FeNbO6) : (FeNbO4) system were synthesized under various thermal conditions, and further systematically investigated for their physico-chemical properties. The composite of Pb-Fe-Nb-O oxide formed at 1100 oC was found to be doubly efficient photocatalyst than TiO2-xNx, for the decolorization of methylene blue under solar radiation. This photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the role of Fe-d, Nb-d and Pb-f states in the band gap of (Pb2FeNbO6) : (FeNbO4) system. The smaller band gap of this material additionally contributes to the improved visible light photocatalytic activity over UV-active TiO2.

Keywords: Composite, Lead Iron Niobate, Photocatalyst, Visible light, Solar radiation.

This Article

  • 2013; 14(4): 557-562

    Published on Aug 31, 2013

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