Hierarchical nanostructures assembled from ultrathin Bi2WO6 nanoflakes and their visible-light induced photocatalytic property

With the aid of ethylene glycol and sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, the hierarchical Bi2WO6 nanoarchitectures assembled from nanoflakes could be attained by a facile solvothermal method. The synthetic strategy is versatile and environmentally friendly and a plausible growth-assembly process was proposed for the formation of the hierarchical nanostructures. The visible-light-irradiated photocatalytic activity was estimated by the degradation of rhodamine B. Compared with the sample prepared by a solid-state reaction, the visible-light-induced photocatalytic efficiency of the nanostructures was enhanced about 6 times. The photocatalysis tests show that the nanostructures exhibit excellent photocatalytic activity and recycling performance, which were mainly ascribed to the unique hierarchical nanostructures and are expected to offer promising applications in the field of wastewater treatment. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.