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A facile route to construct NiTiO3/Bi4NbO8Cl heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic water purification

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Abstract

NiTiO3/Bi4NbO8Cl heterostructure photocatalysts were successfully synthesized by a mechanical mixing method. The crystal structure, morphology, optical properties and energy band structures of all samples were determined by X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, ultraviolet–visible diffuse reflection spectra (UV–Vis DRS), and Mott–Schottky tests. The NiTiO3/Bi4NbO8Cl composites were observed to possess an improved activity in the photocatalytic degradation of organic dye rhodamine B (RhB) under irradiation. In particular, Bi4NbO8Cl modified with NiTiO3 (10% in weight) exhibits the best photocatalytic performance. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be ascribed to the formation of intimate interfacial contact and type-II band alignment between NiTiO3 and Bi4NbO8Cl. From the results of photoluminescence spectra (PL), time-resolved decay spectra (TR-PL), photocurrent and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the rapid separation and transportation of photoinduced charge carriers were proved. In addition, the proposed mechanism for the enhanced photocatalytic activities is proposed in this paper.

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Funding

This work was mainly funded by the Nation Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Grant No. 61504073) and A Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (No. J18KA011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Zhengzhou Road 53, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Xiaofei Qu, Meihua Liu, Wenxiao Zhang, Zheng Sun, Wei Meng, Liang Shi & Fanglin Du

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  1. Xiaofei Qu
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Qu, X., Liu, M., Zhang, W. et al. A facile route to construct NiTiO3/Bi4NbO8Cl heterostructures for enhanced photocatalytic water purification. J Mater Sci 55, 9330–9342 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-04664-w

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