Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Applied Physics A (2020) 126:476 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-03593-4 Enhanced visible light activity of EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites prepared by thermal treatment–hydrolysis precipitation method Fatemeh Sarikhani 1  · Abedin Zabardasti 1  · Ali Reza Soleymani 2  · Mahmoud Naseri 3 Received: 4 March 2020 / Accepted: 28 April 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract The present paper aimed to, through combination of TiO 2 and a rare earth ferrite and EuFeO 3 nanoparticles, synthesize a new visible light active photocatalyst. The EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites were synthesized by a thermal treatment approach, in combination with a hydrolysis precipitation processing. The infuences of concentration of TiO 2 nanoparticles on mor- phological, magnetic and structural properties of EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites were examined by diferent characterization techniques. Moreover, the optical characteristic of the synthesized samples was evaluated by UV–visible difuse refectance spectrophotometry. The nanocomposites’ photocatalytic activity was also assessed under the visible light (λ > 400 nm), considering Congo red molecules degradation. Considerable degradation efciency was observed (68% after 30 min), espe- cially after using EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites ratio of 1:0.5. The performed analysis revealed that EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 (1:0.5) nanocomposite could be structured in a way that led to a considerable redshift in the onset of light absorption in comparison with that of pure TiO 2 . The constructed EuFeO 3 –TiO 2 heterojunction caused a considerable increase in the photocatalytic degradation of the target pollutant, as a result of occurred diminished in electron–hole recombination. Keywords EuFeO 3 /TiO 2 nanocomposites · Thermal treatment/hydrolysis precipitation · Photocatalytic degradation · Congo red 1 Introduction Due to the recent efcient application of solar energy or indoor artifcial light for splitting of water and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, many researchers have become interested in the development of visible light driven photocatalysts. Most of the eforts were mainly concentrated on TiO 2 (titania) as an ultraviolet (UV) light photocatalyst, and its modifcation through changing its absorption band into the visible range [1–3]. The vast application of TiO 2 as a n-type semiconductor [4, 5] is resulted from its strong oxi- dizing power, biological and chemical inertness, nontoxicity, and long-term stability [6, 7]. It has been indicated that the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 sufers from fast charge–car- rier recombination and low interfacial charge-transfer rates of photo-generated carriers [8, 9]. Moreover, due to the large band gap of titania (Eg = 3.32 eV), the absorption of vis- ible light is not possible for it and it can only utilize 3–5% of the solar beam reaching the earth. Therefore, research on titania based novel materials for heterogeneous photo- catalysis with high visible light performance has attracted many attentions. Due to the illumination of the catalyst with the light whose energy is equal to or greater than the band gap, electrons are excited from the valence band to the con- duction band, resulting in the generation of electron–hole pairs. As recently reported, titania supported on a visible light absorbing core of perovskite-type oxides (i.e., ABO 3 with A = rare earth and B = transition metal) shows enhanced visible light activity [10]. Rare earth iron perovskites are a Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-020-03593-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Abedin Zabardasti zabardasti.a@lu.ac.ir * Mahmoud Naseri m.naseri@malayeru.ac.ir; mahmoud.naseri55@gmail.com 1 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Lorestan University, Lorestan, Iran 2 Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran 3 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran