Aqueous synthesis of hierarchical bismuth nanobundles with high catalytic activity to organic dyes

• Bundle-like bismuth was successfully prepared by an aqueous reducing strategy.
• PEG molecules played a key role for the formation of Bi nanobundles.
• The Bi nanobundles have superior photocatalytic activity toward RhB degradation.

Bundle-like bismuth (Bi) nanoarchitectures were successfully prepared on a large scale by an aqueous reducing strategy with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as directing agent at 90 °C for 55 min. The bundle-like Bi nanoarchitectures have a length of 4–5 μm and diameter of 0.5–1 μm with fairly uniform construction. Catalytic activities of the as-prepared hierarchical Bi nanobundles were investigated for degrading Rhodamine B (RhB) dye solution under visible-light irradiation. The Bi nanostructures extended excellent catalytic activity and good cycling performance toward photodegradation of RhB. Possible mechanism was proposed for Bi-assisted photocatalytic degradation of RhB under visible-light.

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