Hydrothermal Synthesis and Characterization of Samarium doped BiPO4 with Enhanced Photocatalytic Activity under UV radiation

Abstract Samarium doped BiPO 4 photocatalyst was synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method. The structural, morphological and optical properties were investigated using XRD, FTIR, SEM, EDS, and UV-DRS techniques. The XRD analysis confirms pure hexagonal and well crystallized structure of the synthesized photocatalyst and average crystallite size of the doped catalyst was 23.28 nm. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra show stretching and bending vibrations of PO 4 group corresponding to hexagonal structure. SEM images showed that the samples have spherical like morphology and EDS confirms the presence of samarium metal. The photocatalytic activity of Sm 3+ -BiPO 4 samples were evaluated for the degradation of methylene blue dye in aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. The color removal efficiency of Sm 3+ -BiPO 4 and pure BiPO 4 was 97% and 66% after 50 min. irradiation, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activity could be mainly attributed to the charge separation. Sm 3+ doping improved the photocatalytic activity of BiPO 4 in degrading methylene blue.