Enhanced photo-fenton and photoelectrochemical activities in nitrogen doped brownmillerite KBiFe2O5
Durga Sankar Vavilapalli, Santosh Behara, Rajagopal Peri, Tiju Thomas, B. Muthuraaman, M. S. Ramachandra Rao, Shubra Singh
Abstract
Abstract Visible-light-driven photo-fenton-like catalytic activity and photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance of nitrogen-doped brownmillerite KBiFe 2 O 5 (KBFO) are investigated. The effective optical bandgap of KBFO reduces from 1.67 to 1.60 eV post N-doping, enabling both enhancement of visible light absorption and photoactivity. The photo-fenton activity of KBFO and N-doped KBFO samples were analysed by degrading effluents like Methylene Blue (MB), Bisphenol-A (BPA) and antibiotics such as Norfloxacin (NOX) and Doxycycline (DOX). 20 mmol of Nitrogen-doped KBFO (20N-KBFO) exhibits enhanced catalytic activity while degrading MB. 20N-KBFO sample is further tested for degradation of Bisphenol-A and antibiotics in the presence of H 2 O 2 and chelating agent L-cysteine. Under optimum conditions, MB, BPA, and NOX, and DOX are degraded by 99.5% (0.042 min -1 ), 83% (0.016 min -1 ), 72% (0.011 min -1 ) and 95% (0.026 min -1 ) of its initial concentration respectively. Photocurrent density of 20N-KBFO improves to 8.83 mA/cm 2 from 4.31 mA/cm 2 for pure KBFO. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of N-doped KBFO make it a promising candidate for energy and environmental applications.