Molten Salt Synthesis of the Plate-Like ABi4Ti4O15 (A= Ba, and Pb) for Methylene Blue Removal via Phocatalysis Effect

Anton Prasetyo (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang)
Muhammad Lathif Al-Abror (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang)
Usman Ali Rouf (Department of Chemistry, Faculty Science and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang)
Erna Hastuti (Department of Physics, Faculty Science and Technology, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang)
Widiya Nur Safitri (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Data Analytics, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember)
Arie Hardian (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences and Informatics, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani)

VALENSI
Jurnal Kimia VALENSI, Volume 12, No. 1, May 2026

One of the promising technologies for the treatment of dye-containing wastewater is photocatalysis. Among the compounds reported to exhibit good photocatalytic activity are Aurivillius compounds with plate-like morphology. In this study, the plate-like ABi4Ti4O15 (A= Ba and Pb) compounds was synthesized using the molten salt method. Diffractogram confirmed that the target compounds BaBi4Ti4O15 and PbBi4Ti4O15 were successfully synthesized but still found the impurities compound. And also the differences in the type of A-site cation (Ba and Pb) also affect the local structure, meanwhile, the SEM image showed that the particle morphology of all samples is plate-like, however, the particle size obtained is not uniform and agglomerated. The plot tauc calculations showed that BaBi4Ti4O15 has a band gap energy of 3.28 eV (378 nm), while that of PbBi4Ti4O15 is 3.03 eV (409.19 nm). Differences in the type of A-site cation (Ba and Pb) affect the band gap energy of the four-layer Aurivillius compound ABi4Ti4O15. Then the lower band gap energy of PbBi₄Ti₄O₁₅ results in a higher degradation capability toward methylene blue compared to BaBi₄Ti₄O₁₅. It also related to higher reaction rate constant of PbBi4Ti4O15. In addition, the another factor also influences the yield of methylene blue degradation by PbBi4Ti4O15 is its higher adsorption ability.