Improving the visible light photocatalytic activities of Bi25FeO40/MIL-101/PTH via polythiophene wrapping

In the present study, MIL-101(Cr) and Bi25FeO40 were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method, and were wrapped by polythiophene (PTH) to form a new composite catalyst, Bi25FeO40/MIL-101/PTH. The pure materials and composite were fully characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and UV-vis spectrophotometer. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of the catalysts were evaluated by measuring the degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light. The results show that the composites exhibit better photocatalytic activities than pure materials and P-25, which can be ascribed to the big adsorption capacity of MIL-101(Cr) and the rapid transferring and separation of photogenerated charge carriers through PTH connected interface between MIL-101(Cr) and Bi25FeO40. (C)2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.