Synthesis of novel visible-light-driven p-n type heterojunction Cr2O3/La2Ti2O7 photocatalysts with improved photocatalytic performance

In this work, a series of Cr2O3/La2Ti2O7 composite photocatalysts were fabricated via a simple two-step method; their morphology, crystalline structure and optical property were characterized respectively. Compared with the pure La2Ti2O7, all the as-prepared nanocomposites exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity in degradation of different pollutants under visible light irradiation, and the optimal mass ratio of Cr2O3 was 14%. The pseudo-first-order model was applied to further evaluate the photocatalytic activity of composites for Rhodamine B (RhB) and reactive brilliant red X-3B (X-3B) degradation reaction. In addition, the photocurrent and photoluminescence (PL) were measured, respectively. And the active species participated in photocatalytic process were demonstrated by trapping test.