Facile Synthesis of BiVO(4)@ZIF−8 Composite with Heterojunction Structure for Photocatalytic Wastewater Treatment

Water pollution has always been a serious problem across the world; therefore, facile pollutant degradation via light irradiation has been an attractive issue in the field of environmental protection. In this study, a type of Zn-based metal–organic framework (ZIF−8)-wrapped BiVO(4) nanorod (BiVO(4)@ZIF−8) with high efficiency for photocatalytic wastewater treatment was synthesized through a two-step hydrothermal method. The heterojunction structure of BiVO(4)@ZIF−8 was confirmed by morphology characterization. Due to the introduction of mesoporous ZIF−8, the specific surface area reached up to 304.5 m(2)/g, which was hundreds of times larger than that of pure BiVO(4) nanorods. Furthermore, the band gap of BiVO(4)@ZIF−8 was narrowed down to 2.35 eV, which enabled its more efficient utilization of visible light. After irradiation under visible light for about 40 min, about 80% of rhodamine B (RhB) was degraded, which was much faster than using pure BiVO(4) or other BiVO(4)-based photocatalysts. The synergistic photocatalysis mechanism of BiVO(4)@ZIF−8 is also discussed. This study might offer new pathways for effective degradation of wastewater through facile design of novel photocatalysts.