Delineating the photocatalytic properties of doped mullite Bi2Fe4O9 by virtue of Gd3+ ions

Abstract In this work, Bi2Fe4O9 (BFO) and Gadolinium (Gd) (5% w/w) doped Bi2Fe4O9 (BGFO), were synthesized via solid state mechano-chemical ball milling technique. Further, Rietveld refined XRD, FTIR and XPS analysis reflects the Gd3+ incorporation into the Bi site of the orthorhombic BFO lattice without altering the structure. Remarkable changes were observed in M−H loop and dielectric constant for BGFO5 samples due to conducting electron-hole hopping process and spin orbital coupling via D-M interaction. The photocatalytic studies revealed that Gd doping into BFO enhanced the photocatalysis of Methylene blue (MB) dye compared to pure BFO. All these results emphasize that BGFO5 might be valid at industrial scale for photo catalysis of industrial dyes.