Surfactant (CTAB) assisted flower-like Bi2WO6 through hydrothermal method: Unintentional bromide ion doping and photocatalytic activity

In addition to morphology control, the unnoticed doping effect of adding surfactant CTAB in hydrothermal synthesis of visible-light driven photocatalyst was also found. In the meantime of assisting the microstructure assembling to higher ‘surface accessibility’, a small amount of doped Br-lowered the band gap of Bi2WO6 and expanded its optical absorption in visible light region and thus further improved the photocatalytic performance. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting this doping effect of surfactants. We expect to provide new insights into the roles of surfactants participating in photocatalyst synthesis.