Zinc-Doped BiFeO3 Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity on Acid Red-85 Dye

Photocatalysis has been drawing significant research attention because of its extensive applications in fields such as environmental remediation and renewable energy. In this work, we design a series of BiFe1-xZnxO3 (x=0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1) photocatalysts to reveal the photocatalytic mechanism for model Acid Red-85, a stable textile dye. The bandgap energy of zinc - doped BiFeO3 is ranging from 2.138 to 2.2 eV. We have shown that changing the Fe/Zn ratio by bandgap engineering effectively controls the reaction pathway. Specifically, BiFe0.925Zn0.075O3 (7.5BFZO) presented the best performance for photocatalytic activity (92 %). The magnetic behaviour improves for lower zinc doping concentrations (x=0.025 and 0.05) and declines for higher concentrations (x=0.075 and 0.10). The photocatalytic degradation of Acid Red-85 dye followed pseudo first order kinetics, with the highest catalytic effect seen in BiFe0.925Zn0.075O3 with 92 % degradation after 2 hours of light exposure.