SPR-promoted visible-light photocatalytic activity of Bi/ZIF hybrids

In recent years, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been extensively studied because of the diversity of their structure and function. To improve the photocatalytic performance of MOFs, an advanced semimetal-MOF hybrid material is constructed through one-pot hydrothermal reduction of Bi nanoparticles on ZIF-67 (Bi/ZIF). Due to the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) property of Bi semimetal, the visible-light-harvesting and the charge separation efficiency of Bi/ZIF hybrids have been conspicuously enhanced. At different Bi loadings (i.e. 5 wt%, Bi/ZIF-5; 10 wt%, Bi/ZIF-10; 15 wt%, Bi/ZIF-15), the Bi/ZIF-5 shows the outstanding visible-light degradation activity, which is 2.30, 1.03 and 1.11 times as high as that of ZIF-67, Bi/ZIF-10 and Bi/ZIF-15, respectively. Similar to the role of noble metals, Bi semimetal also shows a plasmonic effect for greatly boosting visible light activity. This is great significant that low-cost, abundant Bi semimetal can substitute for expensive noble metals to get advanced photocatalyst.