Synthesis of heterostructured Bi2O3–CeO2–ZnO photocatalyst with enhanced sunlight photocatalytic activity

The development of heterostructured semiconductor photocatalysts makes a noteworthy advancement in environmental purification technology. In this work, a novel heterostructured Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO, fabricated by a combination of microwave-assisted hydrothermal and thermal decomposition methods, showed an enhanced photocatalytic activity for Rhodamine B (RhB) degradation under sunlight, as compared to pristine ZnO, Bi2O3, CeO2, and commercial Degussa TiO2-P25. The obtained products were thoroughly characterized by various techniques including X- ray powder diffraction (PXRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), elemental color mapping, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), Raman spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. PXRD analysis reveals that the heterostructure has the monoclinic lattice phase of α-Bi2O3, the cubic phase of CeO2 and the hexagonal wurtzite phase of ZnO. FE-SEM images show that Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO has an ordered mixture of nanorod and nanochain structures. EDAX, elemental color mapping, Raman and FT-IR analyses confirm the successful formation of the heterostructured Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO. The UV–Vis DRS results demonstrate that Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO exhibits wide visible-light photoabsorption in 400–780 nm range. Moreover, the reduction in PL intensity of the heterostructured Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO, when compared to the pristine Bi2O3, CeO2, and ZnO, indicates enhanced charge separation. The study on the mechanism displayed that the improved photocatalytic activity of Bi2O3−CeO2−ZnO could be attributed to (1) the efficient separation of photoinduced electrons and holes of the photocatalysts, caused by the vectorial transfer of electrons and holes among ZnO, CeO2 and Bi2O3, and (2) the wide visible-light photoabsorption range. This study introduces a new class of promising sunlight-driven photocatalysts.