Hydrothermal Synthesis and Visible Light Photocatalytic Properties of BiOCO/BiWO Composite.

Here, we report a composite photocatalyst BiOCO/BiWO which was successfully prepared via a two-step hydrothermal method assisted by Ag nanoparticles. The use of Ag nanoparticles is promoting the production of BiOCO by oxidizing ethylene glycol and to obtain the most suitable heterogenous structure. The synthesized BiOCO/BiWO photocatalyst possesses larger specific surface areas than pure BiO and pure BiWO samples. The complex structure of BiOCO/BiWO benefits the separation of photogenerated electrons and holes since its photoluminescence intensity of emission peaks were dramatically weakened. With larger specific surface areas and lower photogenerated electron-hole pairs recombination rate, BiOCO/BiWO-3% composite exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity among all samples when photodegrading gaseous pollution under visible light (λ > 420 nm). The photocatalytic activity of BiOCO/BiWO-3% composite was 2.05, 3.41 and 10.19 times than that of BiOCO/BiWO, pure BiO and pure BiWO, respectively. Finally, a possible charge separation mechanism was proposed to explain the improved photocatalytic activity of BiOCO/BiWO composite. Graphical Abstract: [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]