Low-Temperature Synthesis of -BiTa Photocatalyst by the Flux Method

Abstract

Low-temperature phase BiTaO 4 ( α -BiTaO 4 ) was successfully synthesized by the flux method using Bi 2 O 3 -B 2 O 3 as the flux. According to previous reports, α -BiTaO 4 has been mostly synthesized via a solid state reaction, which requires heating at 900°C for more than 48 h. In this study, α -BiTaO 4 was successfully synthesized in 4 h at 750°C using the flux method. The impact of varying reaction conditions on the products was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and a scanning electron microscopy analysis. The grain size of α -BiTaO 4 was dependent on reaction conditions such as the reaction temperature and solute concentration. The photocatalytic activity of the obtained α -BiTaO 4 was evaluated for the degradation of phenol. It was found that flux-synthesized α -BiTaO 4 exhibited a higher photocatalytic activity than α -BiTaO 4 synthesized using the solid state method.