Facile fabrication of novel BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 n-p heterojunction with enhanced photocatalytic activities towards pollutant degradation under natural sunlight

The novel three-component BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 heterojunction was successfully fabricated through a facile in-situ hydrothermal method based on the formation of the intermediate Bi2S3 by coupling BiVO4 and MoS2 precursor. The Bi2S3 was easily formed attributing to the strong interaction between Bi3+ and S2- ions with the aid of the hydrothermal reaction. The photocatalytic performances of samples were systematically investigated via the photocatalytic degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), methylene blue (MB) and malachite green (MG) under solar light irradiation. As a result, the photocatalytic degradation rate of BM 10 for RhB, MB and MG are 97%, 93% and 94%, respectively. The enhanced photocatalytic activities could be due to the suppression of charge recombination and the enhanced the visible light absorption of BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 heterojunction. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.