title: A novel approach to prepare Bi2Fe4O9flower-like spheres with enhanced photocatalytic performance.
abstract: A novel two-step approach consisting of hydrothermal process and subsequently selective etching has been developed to prepare flower-like three-dimensional porous Bi2Fe4O9spheres with good uniformity and highly photocatalytic performance. XRD patterns and SEM images reveal that the Bi2Fe4O9phase does not exhibit any changes after the etching process, and the crystal morphology evolves from micro-platelets to flower-like three-dimensional porous Bi2Fe4O9spheres by controlling the experiment parameters. The change of morphology will lead to the significant increase of specific surface area, which would be beneficial to the enhancement of photocatalytic performance owing to prominent absorption in the ultraviolet and visible light region. As compared to Bi2Fe4O9microplatelets, flower-like three-dimensional porous Bi2Fe4O9spheres exhibit excellent photocatalytic degration rate of methyl orange (MO).
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China. yanghaibo@sust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710021, PR China.
authors.forename: Pan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kang