Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants over basic bismuth (III) nitrate/BiVO4 composite

Basic bismuth (III) nitrate (BBN)/BiVO4 composites were prepared by a coprecipitation method. A variety of techniques including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), N2 adsorption, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were employed to characterize the resulting materials. The composite shows higher photocatalytic activity than BiVO4 over degradation of organic pollutants (RhB, MO, phenol, and 2-propanol). A mechanism was proposed for the enhanced photocatalytic activity. The proposed mechanism was confirmed by experiments with hydroxyl radicals.

Graphical abstractBasic bismuth (III) nitrate (BBN) and BiVO4 composite show higher photocatalytic activity than BiVO4. The reason is ascribed to the hydroxyl in BBN, which acts as hole trappers.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (80 K)Download as PowerPoint slide