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In situ facile fabrication of Z-scheme leaf-like β-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 nanosheets composites with enhanced visible light photoactivity

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Abstract

In this work, leaf-like β-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 nanosheets composites were synthesized via a simple in situ method. β-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 nanocomposites were obtained via calcining the mixtures of g-C3N4 and metallic Bi, while, at the same temperature, in the absence of g-C3N4, metallic Bi formed α-Bi2O3. The presence of β-Bi2O3 in the composite was demonstrated by X-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis. From scanning electron microscope analysis, the morphology of leaf-like β-Bi2O3 and the g-C3N4 nanosheets were observed. The as-prepared β-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 composite exhibited higher photocatalytic activity than both pure β-Bi2O3 and g-C3N4 for photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue under visible light. The active species capture experiments and photoluminescence experiments illustrated that the degradation mechanism followed the Z-scheme mechanism. This proposed method provides an efficiency way to prepare potential visible light responsive materials for wastewater treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21277108; 21476179), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (WUT: 185208007), one hundred talents project of Guangzhou University and 2016 Wuhan Yellow Crane Talents (Science) Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Liu, Jiabin Zhou, Zeshu Hu & Jun Zhou

  2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, 610500, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Liu & Jiabin Zhou

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, People’s Republic of China

    Weiquan Cai

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  1. Wei Liu
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Liu, W., Zhou, J., Hu, Z. et al. In situ facile fabrication of Z-scheme leaf-like β-Bi2O3/g-C3N4 nanosheets composites with enhanced visible light photoactivity. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 14906–14917 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9629-4

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