Enhanced photocatalytic activity of bismuth molybdates with the preferentially exposed {010} surface under visible light irradiation

In this work, gamma-Bi2MoO6 samples with different morphologies and surface structures were prepared via simple Solution methods and their photocatalytic degradations of rhodamine-B (RhB) were investigated Under visible light irradiation. In spite of their lower BET Surface area, we found that that gamma-Bi2MoO6 sheets with the preferentially exposed {0 1 0} Surface exhibited the greatly enhanced photocatalytic activity. The mechanism Study and structural analysis of stoichiometric gamma-Bi2MoO6 indicated that the particular reactive surface with much more oxygen defects and in-plane vacancies,derived from the larger distortion of the MoO6 octahedra, play a more important role of the enhanced photocatalytic activity, (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.