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Ag-decorated 3D flower-like Bi2MoO6/rGO with boosted photocatalytic performance for removal of organic pollutants

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Abstract

A series of unique 3D flower-like Bi2MoO6 (BMO)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) heterostructured composites decorated with varying amounts of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated. Their morphological characteristics, structural features, energy band structures and photoelectrochemical properties were systematically studied. All the Ag/BMO/rGO ternary composites (AgBG-y; y = 1%, 2% and 3%) demonstrated greater photocatalytic activity towards efficient removal of our selected organic models [methyl orange (MO), rhodamine B (RhB) and phenol], as compared with the BMO/rGO binary composites (BG-x; x = 0.25, 2, 4 and 5). Particularly, AgBG-2%, which was synthesized with the addition of 2 wt% rGO and 2 wt% Ag in BMO, possessed superior photocatalytic activity. The fitted rate constants (k) for the photocatalytic degradation of RhB, MO and phenol using AgBG-2% were estimated to be 0.0286, 0.0301 and 0.0165 min−1, respectively, which were over one order of magnitude greater than those obtained using pure BMO. Several factors may contribute to the observed enhancement, including greater specific surface area, enhanced light absorption, promoted spatial separation of electron–hole (e−–h+) pairs and their suppressed recombination, especially benefiting from the synergistic effects among BMO, rGO and Ag NPs. Our work suggests that the rational design of BMO/rGO/Ag ternary composite was an effective strategy to boost the photocatalytic activity of the resulting catalyst towards the highly efficient removal of organic pollutants from water.

Graphic abstract

This work presents the construction of Ag NPs-decorated 3D flower-like Bi2MoO6 (BMO)/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) ternary composites as effective photocatalysts for efficient removal of organic pollutants under solar light irradiation. The separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers is significantly promoted by the synergistic effect of Ag NPs, BMO and rGO.

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Acknowledgements

The research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21607064 and 21707055), the Youth Key Project of Nature Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Nos. 20192ACBL20014 and 20192ACBL21011), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (Nos. 20181BAB203018 and 20181BAB213010) and Qingjiang Youth Talent Program (No. JXUSTQJYX20170005). And Dr Wei-Ya Huang is grateful for the scholarship under China Scholarship Council (No. 201803000004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials, Metallurgical and Chemistry, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou, 341000, China

    Xin Liu, Wei-Ya Huang, Qin Zhou, Xi-Rong Chen & Kai Yang

  2. Environmental Engineering and Science Program, Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0012, USA

    Wei-Ya Huang & Dionysios D. Dionysiou

  3. College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education, Murdoch University, Murdoch, 6150, Australia

    Dan Li

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  1. Xin Liu
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  2. Wei-Ya Huang
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  6. Dan Li
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  7. Dionysios D. Dionysiou
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Correspondence to Wei-Ya Huang or Dionysios D. Dionysiou.

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Liu, X., Huang, WY., Zhou, Q. et al. Ag-decorated 3D flower-like Bi2MoO6/rGO with boosted photocatalytic performance for removal of organic pollutants. Rare Met. 40, 1086–1098 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01574-3

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