Fabrication of novel rGO/Bi20TiO32 heterojunction for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic activity

The photocatalytic performance of pure Bi20TiO32 was restricted by the fast charge recombination. Considering the high carrier mobility of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), a series of rGO/Bi20TiO32 composites were successfully fabricated by a facile in suit method with the aim to promote the charge separation. Inspiringly, 2% rGO/Bi20TiO32 composite showed much higher photocatalytic activity for the degradation of non-biodegradable Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation, which was 10 times higher than that of pure Bi20TiO32. The enhanced photocatalytic performance of rGO/Bi20TiO32 composites could be attributed to their stronger optical absorption in the visible-light region and rapider separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. The underlying photocatalytic mechanism was revealed through the Photoluminescence spectra and free radical capture experiment. This work provided a rational design for the development of high efficient visible-light photocatalysts.