Fabrication of 0D/1D Bi2MoO6/Bi/TiO2 heterojunction with effective interfaces for boosted visible-light photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline

The efficient photo-induced charges transfer/separation plays a critical role in enhancing photocatalytic performance. Heterojunctions with low dimensional morphologies, such as nanosheets and nanobelts, can decrease the electron transfer distance, which can further promote charge transfer/separation. In this work, Bi2MoO6/Bi/TiO2 composites with low dimensional heterostructure as nanobelts decorated by quantum dots were successfully prepared by solvothermal method, and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated by the degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation. Compared with pristine TiO2 (35.56%) and Bi2MoO6 (44.14%), the photocatalyitic degradation performance under visbile light irradiation of composite TBM0.05-5 (82.73%) are grealy improved. The k (under visible light irradiation) is about 8.49 and 8.64 times that of pure TiO2 and Bi2MoO6 respectively. The boosted photocatalytic activity can be attributed to the new charge transfer pathway formed by heterojunction, short transfer distance provided by the low dimensional morphology and plasmonic Bi acted as electron trap. The good stability and general applicability were also confirmed by recycling and universality experiments. Moreover, the superiority of composite with low dimensional heterostructure as nanobelts decorated by quantum dots was also proved by comparing to composites with other morphologies. This novel Bi2MoO6/Bi/TiO2 photocatalyst may provide inspirations for antibiotic degradation and wastewater treatment.

Automated summary

This study investigates the photocatalytic activity of low-dimensional heterostructure Bi2MoO6/Bi/TiO2 composites decorated with quantum dots on nanobelts under visible light irradiation. The results show that the photocatalytic performance of the composite material is significantly improved, attributed to the new charge transfer pathway formed by the heterojunction, the short transfer distance provided by the low-dimensional morphology, and the role of plasmonic Bi as an electron trap.