Toward improving the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4-graphene 2D-2D composites under visible light by the addition of mediator

We report the fabrication of ternary composites by introducing a tiny amount of Pd nanoparticles into the interfacial layer between 2D graphene and 2D BiVO4 nanosheets. The resulting BiVO4 nanosheet-GR-Pd composites feature the cross-linked sheet-on-sheet structural morphology and show significantly higher photocatalytic activity than binary BiVO4-GR 2D-2D composites under visible light. The results indicate that instead of a simple issue of interfacial contact, the optimization of charge carrier transfer across the interfacial domain is a feasible, promising strategy for improving the photocatalytic activity of 2D-2D composite photocatalysts.