A one-step hydrothermal preparation strategy for layered BiIO4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities

Abstract

Through the introduction of a new Bi-based semiconductor BiIO₄, the novel BiIO₄/Bi₂WO₆ heterojunctions composed of two layered structures were successfully fabricated by a one-step hydrothermal method. The as-prepared samples were thoroughly characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, XPS, ICP, DRS and PL spectra technologies. The photodegradation experiments indicated that the BiIO₄/Bi₂WO₆ composites showed much higher visible-light-driven (VLD) photocatalytic activity than those of either individual BiIO₄ and Bi₂WO₆ for rhodamine B (RhB) degradation, which are attributed to the high separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs resulted by the BiIO₄/Bi₂WO₆ heterojunctions. This is the first report of the photocatalytic activity of the new Bi-based compound BiIO₄ and BiIO₄/Bi₂WO₆ composites under visible light. Moreover, our research provided a new layered semiconductor, which can be applied in the future for heterojunction construction and energy band structure design.