Issue 122, 2015

Synthesis of ionic liquid-modified BiPO4 microspheres with hierarchical flower-like architectures and enhanced photocatalytic activity

Abstract

In this work, hierarchical flower-like BiPO4 microspheres were successfully synthesized by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal reaction of bismuth nitrate with [C4mim][PF6] (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate) in water at 160 °C, where the ionic liquid could act as a phosphorus source, surface modified agent and template. The photocatalytic activities of the as-prepared BiPO4 samples were evaluated by decolorization of rhodamine B in aqueous solution under UV light irradiation. It was found that the BiPO4 sample modified with ionic liquid (IL-BiPO4) exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity in comparison with the unmodified one prepared in the absence of [C4mim][PF6]. In addition, the effect of ionic liquid modification on the improved photocatalytic activity was investigated in detail and a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed for IL-BiPO4. It is suggested that the significantly improved photocatalytic activity of IL-BiPO4 could be mainly attributed to trapping of the photoinduced electron at the conduction band of IL-BiPO4 and thus effectively improving the separation efficiency of photoinduced electron–hole pairs due to ionic liquid modification.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis of ionic liquid-modified BiPO4 microspheres with hierarchical flower-like architectures and enhanced photocatalytic activity

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Jul 2015
Accepted
18 Nov 2015
First published
19 Nov 2015

RSC Adv., 2015,5, 100625-100632

Synthesis of ionic liquid-modified BiPO4 microspheres with hierarchical flower-like architectures and enhanced photocatalytic activity

H. Lv, J. Guang, Y. Liu, H. Tang, P. Zhang, Y. Lu and J. Wang, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 100625 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA14626G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements