A one-pot method for the preparation of graphene-Bi2MoO6 hybrid photocatalysts that are responsive to visible-light and have excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of organic pollutants

Graphene-Bi2MoO6 (G-Bi2MoO6) hybrid photocatalysts were prepared by a simple one-step process in which the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) and the growth of Bi2MoO6 crystals occurred simultaneously. The material was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity was investigated by the degradation of reactive brilliant red dye X-3B. An increase in photocatalytic activity was observed for G-Bi2MoO6 hybrids compared with pure Bi2MoO6 under visible light. This improvement was attributed to the following two reasons: increased migration efficiency of photo-induced electrons and increased adsorption activity for dye molecules. A study of the effect of the amount of graphene on the photocatalytic activity showed that there was an optimum amount of 2.5% (initial GO weight).