A plate-on-plate sandwiched Z-scheme heterojunction photocatalyst: BiOBr-Bi 2 MoO 6 with enhanced photocatalytic performance

• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2016.07.070
• Publication Date: 2016-07-16T14:17:50Z
• Authors: Shengyao Wang; Xianglong Yang; Xuehao Zhang; Xing Ding; Zixin Yang; Ke Dai; Hao Chen
• Keywords: Visible spectrum; Coprecipitation

Abstract In this study, a direct Z-scheme heterojunction BiOBr-Bi 2 MoO 6 with greatly enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance was fabricated via a two-step coprecipitation method. It was indicated that a plate-on-plate heterojunctions be present between BiOBr and Bi 2 MoO 6 through different characterization techniques including X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoelectrochemical measurements. The crystal structure and morphology analysis revealed that the heterointerface in BiOBr-Bi 2 MoO 6 occurred mainly on the (001) facets of BiOBr and (001) facets of Bi 2 MoO 6 . The photocatalytic activity of the BiOBr-Bi 2 MoO 6 was investigated by degradation of RhB and about 66.7% total organic carbon (TOC) could be removed. Ciprofloxacin (CIP) was employed to rule out the photosensitization. It was implied that the higher activity of BiOBr-Bi 2 MoO 6 could be attribute to the strong redox ability in the Z-scheme system, which was subsequently confirmed by photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) and active spices trapping experiments. This study provides a promising platform for Z-scheme heterojunction constructing and also sheds light on highly efficient visible-light-driven photocatalysts designing.