Magnetically recoverable and visible-light-driven nanocrystalline YFeO3 photocatalysts

The single nanocrystalline perovskite YFeO3 was synthesized using Fe(NO3)3[middle dot]9H2O and Y(NO3)3[middle dot]6H2O by a facile microwave-assisted approach. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrate the successful synthesis of single perovskite YFeO3 and an average grain size of 60-70 nm in diameter. The prepared YFeO3 shows a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 11.7 m2 g-1. UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) shows the optical absorption onset of 511 nm, indicating the optical band gap of 2.43 eV. Ferromagnetic character was demonstrated by the hysteresis loop in the as-prepared YFeO3 nanoparticles. The photocatalytic experiment shows a high activity for decomposition of Rhodamine B under visible-light irradiation, which is attributed to the strong visible-light absorption. The recovery of YFeO3 photocatalysts was performed after the photocatalytic experiment, and it is found that YFeO3 nanocrystalline photocatalysts can be efficiently recovered by an external magnet without the need for a conventional filtration step.