Doped Lanthanum Ferrite Perovskites: Promising Materials for Photocatalytic Applications

LaFeO3 perovskites both bare and containing 5 to 40 mol% of Cu(II) substituting Fe(III) have been prepared by the citrate auto-combustion synthesis method and used as heterogeneous photocatalysts for the degradation of 2-propanol in gas-solid regime under simulated solar light irradiation. The bare LaFeO3 resulted inactive, however the Cu(II) containing perovskite oxidized 2-propanol to propanone and eventually to CO2 and H2O. The most acive material resuted to be those with a 20% of Cu. Cu doping decreases the unit cell volume, and increases the distortion of (Fe/Cu)O6 octahedra, thus moving towards a configuration with four longer and two shorter bond lengths.