The highly improved visible light photocatalytic activity of BiOI through fabricating a novel p–n heterojunction BiOI/WO3 nanocomposite
Abstract
A novel BiOI/WO3 heterostructure was successfully synthesized using a facile ultrasonic process and used for the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants. The different BiOI loadings were investigated at the same time in this study. The heterostructure of BW-1.0 exhibited improved photocatalytic activity in comparison with pristine BiOI and WO3 with a 10.3- and 12.6-fold increase for Rhodamine B (RhB) degradation under visible light, respectively. The BiOI/WO3 heterostructured catalysts all exhibit the highest photocatalytic activity for degradation tetracycline (TC) under visible light. The excellent photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the BiOI in close contact with WO3, which forms a heterojunction structure. This heterostructure composite photocatalyst results in an efficient charge separation at the interface, which is confirmed by photoelectron and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Moreover, trapping experiments indicated that h+ and ˙O2− were the main active species, with DMPO–˙O2− and DMPO–˙OH both being investigated. Moreover, the prepared sample shows good stability and recyclability, which are beneficial for its practical applications.