Facile one-pot synthesis of wood based bismuth molybdate nano-eggshells with efficient visible-light photocatalytic activity

Photocatalysis, which harnesses light to degrade pollutants, has been considered as the most green and low-cost approach for environmental remediation. In this work, a novel wood-based photocatalyst was prepared by a simple one-pot way. The as-prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectra, respectively. Results showed that the synthesized bismuth molybdate nano-eggshells were evenly grown on the surface of wood substrate. Additionally, its morphologies were strongly dependent on the initial pH of precursor solution and the presence of wood substrate. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was evaluated based on the decomposition of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The sample prepared at pH 6 showed superior performance for the photodegradation of rhodamine B, in comparison to the pure bismuth molybdate powders and the samples prepared at other pH value. The stability, photocatalytic mechanism and the reasons for improving photocatalytic activity were also discussed. This study offers exciting opportunities to achieve the industrialization of photocatalytic wood products.