Ethylenediamine-assisted synthesis of barium bismuthate microrods and solar light photocatalytic performance

Barium bismuthate microrods were synthesized by a simple ethylenediamine-assisted hydrothermal route using barium acetate and sodium bismuthate as the source materials. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows that the barium bismuthate microrods are composed of monoclinic BaBiO 2.5 phase. Scanning electron microscopy images show that the length and diameter of the barium bismuthate microrods are about 10–20 μm and 500 nm–1.5 μm, respectively. The formation and growth of the barium bismuthate microrods are closely related to the temperature, processing duration and ethylenediamine concentration. The solid UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectrum shows that the band gap of the barium bismuthate microrods is 1.42 eV which has strong absorption ability in the visible light region. The phtocatalytic activity of the barium bismuthate microrods has been evaluated by the photocatalytic removal of gentian violet under natural solar light irradiation in aqueous solution. Gentian violet with a concentration of 10 mg · L −1 can be totally removed by 10 mg barium bismuthate microrods in 10 mL aqueous solution.