Mechanistic insights into the electrospinning fabrication of belt-like structures of BiFeO3 and their photocatalytic properties

[Display omitted] •Fabrication of belts and fibers of BiFeO3 by electrospinning process.•Formation of belts originated via electrical-pressure mediated buckling instability.•Photocatalytic degradation of various pollutants over these materials in sunlight.•Demonstration of belts in terms of 1D-2D combined hierarchical structures. One-dimensional fiber and belt-like structures of bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) have been synthesized using electrospinning process and their mechanistic formation and photocatalytic properties have been investigated towards degradation of various organic pollutants. The X-ray diffraction patterns and micrographs confirmed the crystalline-phase BiFeO3 and their fiber (diameter of ~ 150 nm) and belt morphology (width and thickness of ~ 1 µm and 200 nm, respectively). It is proposed that the formation of belt-like structure could be due to high electrical-pressure mediated buckling instability in the polymer-jet during electrospinning process. These belt-like structures showed relatively enhanced optical absorption (in the range of 400–500 and 600–700 nm) and surface properties (~23.5 m2/g), and thereby it also exhibited the improved photocatalytic degradation of pollutants under sunlight irradiation. These belts have been perceived as a kind of 1D-2D hierarchical structure to understand their photocatalytic mechanism.