Synthesis of GO/TiO2/Bi2WO6 nanocomposites with enhanced visible light photocatalytic degradation of ethylene

A series of GO/TiO2/Bi2WO6 (GTB) nanocomposite photocatalysts were synthesized by one-step solvothermal method. Their structures were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activity of GTB was found to be high as investigated by the degradation of ethylene under visible light. At 0.75% GO, the degradation rate of GTB to ethylene was the highest, at 5.7 times, 2.8 times and 1.3 times that of pure TiO2, Bi2WO6 and TiO2/Bi2WO6, respectively. The structural characterization shows that GO and TiO2/Bi2WO6 combine to form multiple heterojunctions, which make the forbidden bandwidth smaller. The addition of GO reduces the average grain size of GTB size, and creates an interfacial interaction with TiO2/Bi2WO6, which inhibits the recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs and increases the photocatalytic activity. The GTB exhibited good stability and reusability in experiments dealing with performance evaluation during catalyst reuse.