Comparison of the photocatalytic activity of perovskite structures: bismuth, barium, and zinc titanate nanostructures for photodegradation of Methylene blue from water

Abstract This study was conducted to improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO2 in the visible light range using TiO2 based nanostructures. For this purpose, TiO2 nanostructures were prepared by using the microwave-assisted technique and then used to prepare barium titanate (BaTiO3), bismuth titanate (Bi4Ti3O12), and zinc titanate (ZnTiO3) nanostructures. The thermal, structural, purity, surface morphology, and optical studies were conducted through the TGA/DTA, XRD, EDX, FE-SEM, and UV-Vis analyses. The crystallite sizes of TiO2, bismuth titanate, barium titanate, and zinc titanate nanostructures were obtained 45, 32, 32, and 29 nm respectively. The optical band gap of prepared samples was evaluated at 3.65, 2.65, 2.80, and 3.80 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of the perovskite nanostructures on methylene blue degradation was evaluated and the results showed that bismuth titanate nanostructures with smaller bandgap have higher photocatalytic activity among prepared samples in the visible light range.