In situ one-step combustion synthesis of Bi2O3/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions with notable visible light photocatalytic activities

A series of well-structured alpha-Bi2O3/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions was successfully prepared via an in situ one-step solution combustion method. HRTEM result indicated that there were many heterostructure interfaces formed in the as-obtained composites. The rhodamin B degradation results showed that the heterojunctions exhibited higher activities than those of pure alpha-Bi2O3 and pure Bi2WO6 under visible light irradiation. The enhanced performance was attributed to effective electrons transfer from alpha-Bi2O3 to Bi2WO6 and was also demonstrated by the photoluminescence test. Finally, a possible charge separation process mechanism over the alpha-Bi2O3/Bi2WO6 heterojunction was proposed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.