A facile synthesis of heterojunctional BiVO₄/Bi₅O₇I with enhanced photocatalytic activity for organic dyes degradation

Abstract Photocatalysis technology has risen to effectively degrade the hardly-degraded organic pollutants in recent years and the photocatalysts play an important role in striding the obstacles of the visible light response. Herein, a high-efficiency BiVO₄/Bi₅O₇I heterojunctional photocatalysts have been purposefully designed by controlling the reactant ratios and ultrasonic time of reaction at room temperature. Photocatalytic experimentals confirm that the prepared optimal BiVO₄/Bi₅O₇I composites displayed enhanced photocatalytic ability to degrade rhodamine B and quinoline blue under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, the photocatalysts exhibits high photostability and reusability proved by four consecutive cycling experiments. A possible mechanism of p–n heterojunctional BiVO₄/Bi₅O₇I composites enhanced the photocatalytic performance was discussed in detail on the basis of the reactive species trapping experiments in photocatalytic degradation process