Versatility of electrospinning in the fabrication of fibrous mat and mesh nanostructures of bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) and their magnetic and photocatalytic activities

This study demonstrates the fabrication of electrospun bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3/BFO) fiber mat and fibrous mesh nanostructures consisting of aligned and random fibers respectively. The formation of these one dimensional (1D) nanostructures was mediated by the drum and plate collectors in the electrospinning process that yielded aligned and random nanofibers of BFO respectively. The single phase and rhombohedral crystal structure of the fabricated 1D BFO nanostructures are confirmed through X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies indicated that the fabricated fibers are stoichiometric BFO with native oxidation states +3. The surface texture and morphology are analyzed using the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques. The average size of fibers in mat and mesh nanostructures is found to be 200 nm and 150 nm respectively. The band gap energy of BFO mat and mesh deduced from their UV diffuse reflectance spectra (UV-DRS) was found to be 2.44 eV and 2.39 eV, respectively, which evidenced the improved visible light receptivity of BFO mesh compared to that of the mat. Magnetization studies using a super conducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer revealed the weak ferromagnetic properties of BFO mesh and mat nanostructures that could emerge due to the dimension induced suppression of cycloidal spin structures. The photocatalytic degradation properties of the fibrous mesh are found to be enhanced compared to that of the mat. This could be attributed to the reduced band gap energy and an improved semiconductor band-bending phenomenon in the mesh that favoured the transportation of excited charge carriers to the photocatalyst-dye interfaces and the production of more number of reactive species that lead to the effective degradation of the dye molecules.