Sucrose-templated nanoporous BiFeO3 for promising magnetically recoverable multifunctional environment-purifying applications: adsorption and photocatalysis

Abstract

Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃), which acts as a significant multiferroic material, exhibits unique magnetic and ferroelectric properties. Here, we adopted a sol–gel method to synthesize disordered nanoporous BFO with a sucrose template. By different characterization methods such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N₂ physisorption measurements, the large BET (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller) surface area (34.25 m² g⁻¹) and disordered pores (20–40 nm) of the sucrose-templated nanoporous BFO (SN-BFO) materials were determined. These SN-BFO materials exhibited high magnetic performance (M_s = 6.37 emu g⁻¹) and a favorable magnetic recycling ratio. In addition, SN-BFO displayed appropriate adsorption characteristics and good photocatalytic stability, which demonstrates that SN-BFO is a candidate for promising recoverable multifunctional environment-purifying applications in the future.