One-pot synthesis of the BiVO4/BiOBr heterojunction composite for enhanced photocatalytic performance

In this work, the BiVO4/BiOBr heterojunction composite was successfully prepared by a simple one-pot hydrothermal process. The formation of BiVO4 and BiOBr and the photocatalytic performance of the prepared BiVO4/BiOBr composite were significantly influenced by the addition of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and the concentration of HNO3 used during the process of preparing BiVO4. Rhodamine B (RhB) can be completely degraded in 15 min by the BiVO4/BiOBr composite under the illumination of visible light (lambda > 420 nm). The degradation efficiency of the BiVO4/BiOBr composite is dramatically promoted compared with that of pure BiVO4. The significant promotion of the photo-catalytic degradation performance can be attributed to the existence of the heterojunction electric field formed on the interface between BiVO4 and BiOBr, which significantly enhances the separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.