Abstract
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•Bi12ZnO20 sillenite crystals were synthesized and used as a photocatalyst.•The structure of the crystal was analyzed by the Rietveld method.•A bandgap of 2.8 eV was determined for this catalyst.•Significant removal of Cefuroxime was recorded using Bi12ZnO20.
The purpose of this work is to study the crystal structural and optical properties of the bismuth-based zinc sillenite Bi12ZnO20 (BZO) in order to be used for environmental application. BZO nanoparticles were synthesized by the co-precipitation technique. The obtained catalyst was characterized by different techniques. Starting with XRD, the structure was refined from XRD data using the Rietveld method and then illustrated for the first time. A space group of I23 was identified for BZO with a cell parameter a = 10.214 Å. The morphology was visualized by SEM. The optical proprieties have been evaluated by DRS, an optical bandgap of 2.8 eV was found. This narrow bandgap allows this sillenite to be a promising photocatalyst for photocatalytic applications. For that, we tested it for the removal of Cefuroxime antibiotic, this catalyst has shown very interesting activity in degrading this pollutant around 80% in just 4 h. This rate is the highest compared to the literature.