Strategy to Improve the Magnetic and Visible Light Induced Photocatalytic Properties of KBiFe2O5

The recently identified intriguing room-temperature multiferroic photoactive material KBiFe2O5 (KBFO) has potential uses in visible light-induced photocatalysis for environmental clean-up and photovoltaics for solar energy harvesting. We adopted the addition of polymeric surfactant polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) via sol-gel route, to improve the magnetic and visible light induced photocatalytic properties of KBFO, and thus obtained results are reporting here. The addition of PVP had significant influence on the particle size and the morphology of the synthesized KBFO polycrystalline samples. KBFO synthesized via addition of PVP showed four time’s higher magnetization value and double rate constant when compared to KBFO obtained without addition of PVP. The improved in magnetic and photocatalytic properties of KBFO is attributed to larger surface area and regular shaped morphology. The obtained results provide deeper understanding of relation between the material processing, morphology and its influence on the physical properties.