Construction of NiSe2/BiVO4 Schottky junction derived from work function discrepancy for boosting photocatalytic activity

The rapid recombination of photogenerated carriers limits the photocatalytic activity of BiVO4. Here, we grew NiSe2 nanosheets on the surface of BiVO4 through a facile solvothermal method to construct a Schottky junction. Due to the discrepancy of work function, electrons at the interface are transferred from BiVO4 to NiSe2, thereby forming a built-in electric field. In virtue of the built-in electric field and the good conductivity of NiSe2, the photo-generated carriers can be quickly separated and transferred. In addition, the interaction at the interface reduces the band gap of BiVO4, which increases the absorption of visible light. These above benefits improve the photocatalytic performance. The photocatalytic reaction under visible light shows that the degradation rate of RhB for 9 mol% NiSe2 composited BiVO4 increases by 11 times compared with pure BiVO4. The simplicity of the preparation method and the significantly improved performance show the enormous potential of NiSe2 to be coupled with other semiconductor photocatalysts to improve their catalytic activity. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

By growing NiSe2 nanosheets on the surface of BiVO4 to construct a Schottky junction, forming a built-in electric field and increasing visible light absorption, the photocatalytic performance was significantly improved, leading to an 11-fold increase in the degradation rate of RhB.