The enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity of Bi2WxMo1-xO6-BiOCl heterojunctions with adjustable energy band

A series of energy band adjustable Bi2WxMo1-xO6-BiOCl (x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0) heterojunctions were successfully synthesized through a solvothermal crystallization method. Characteristics and properties of the products were investigated using XRD, TEM, HRTEM, EDS, and DRS. Meanwhile, the photocatalytic activities of Bi2WxMo1-xO6-BiOCl composites were estimated by degrading Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. The results show that Bi2W0.6MO0.4O6-BiOCl (1:14) composite displayed the best photocatalytic performance among all the as-prepared samples. The enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities of Bi2WxMo1-xO6-BiOCl heterojunctions could be attributed to the generation of the adjustable energy band configuration, which has great influences on the generation of photoinduced carriers through inhibiting the recombination of electron-hole pairs. According to the active species trapping results and energy band calculation, the mechanism of the significant enhancement of the photocatalytic activity was proposed. This method may provide new insights into the energy band adjusting of photocatalysts used in environmental remediation and photocatalytic water purification. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.