One-pot hydrothermal synthesis of a novel BiPO4/BiOBr composite with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities

The BiPO4/BiOBr composites were successfully fabricated by a facile one-step hydrothermal method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS), photoluminescence (PL) and photocurrent (PC) measurements were employed to characterize the crystal structures, morphologies, optical properties, recombination of photo-generated electron–hole pairs, and electron–hole separation effect of the photocatalysts. BiPO4/BiOBr composites exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB and MO dye than single BiOBr and BiPO4 under visible light and simulated sunlight irradiation, respectively. The results of PL and PC measurements demonstrated that the large enhancement of photocatalytic activity could be mainly ascribed to the surface junction of BiPO4/BiOBr composite which can effectively improve electron–hole separation speed during photocatalytic process.