Hydrothermal Synthesis and Characterization of Bi 2

The pH effect of the precursor solutions on the phase, morphologies, and photocatalytic activity of Bi2MoO6 synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction at 180°C for 20 h was investigated. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed the presence of pure orthorhombic well-crystallized γ-Bi2MoO6 nanoplates, including the symmetric (A1g) and asymmetric (A2u) stretching vibrations of the MoO6 octahedrons involving the motion of apical oxygen atoms. The photocatalytic activity of Bi2MoO6 nanoplates at the pH 6 determined via the decomposition of rhodamine-B (RhB) organic dye was the highest at 98.66% decolorization under Xe light irradiation