Manifestation of weak ferromagnetism and photocatalytic activity in bismuth ferrite nanoparticles

Bismuth ferrite (BFO) nanoparticles were synthesized by auto-ignition technique with and without adding ignition fuel such as citric acid. The presence of citric acid in the reaction mixture yielded highly-magnetic BFO/{gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite. When this composite was annealed to 650 Degree-Sign C, a single phase BFO was formed with average crystallite size of 50 nm and showed weak ferromagnetic behavior. Conversely, the phase pure BFO prepared without adding citric acid exhibited antiferromagnetism because of its larger crystallite size of around 70 nm. The visible-light driven photocatalytic activity of both the pure BFO and BFO/{gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite were examined by degrading methyl orange dye. The pure BFO showed a moderate photocatalytic activity; while BFO/{gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanocomposite showed enhanced activity. This could be probably due to the optimal band gap ratio between BFO and {gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} phases reduced the recombination of electron-hole pairs which aided in the enhancement of photocatalytic activity.