A high efficiency photocatalyst based on porous Bi-doped TiO2 composites

Herein, the high-efficiency Bi/TiO2 composites with a porous structure were fabricated successfully using a sol-gel method. The structure, morphology, microstructure, composition and optical absorbance of the Bi/TiO2 composites were evaluated via X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and UV-Vis spectroscopy, respectively. To investigate the photocatalytic properties of as-synthesized Bi/TiO2 composites, we tested the photodegradation for rhodamine B (RB) under UV-Vis irradiation. Compared with pure TiO2, the 5% Bi/TiO2 composites exhibited superior photodegradation efficiency of 95.6% under UV-Vis irradiation for 60 min. The excellent performance is attributed to the porous structure and the appropriate amount of Bi that can inhibit the recombination of the photo-generated electrons for further enhancement of photocatalytic performance.