In-Situ Hydrothermal Synthesis of Bi–Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) Heterojunction Photocatalyst with Enhanced Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Bismuth containing nanomaterials recently received increasing attention with respect to environmental applications because of their low cost, high stability and nontoxicity. In this work, Bi–Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) heterojunctions were fabricated by in-situ decoration of Bi nanoparticles on Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) nanosheets via a simple hydrothermal synthesis approach. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) were used to confirm the morphology of the nanosheet-like heterostructure of the Bi–Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) composite. Detailed ultrafast electronic spectroscopy reveals that the in-situ decoration of Bi nanoparticles on Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) nanosheets exhibit a dramatically enhanced electron-hole pair separation rate, which results in an extraordinarily high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of a model organic dye, methylene blue (MB) under visible light illumination. Cycling experiments revealed a good photochemical stability of the Bi–Bi(2)O(2)CO(3) heterojunction under repeated irradiation. Photocurrent measurements further indicated that the heterojunction incredibly enhanced the charge generation and suppressed the charge recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. [Image: see text]