Facile Hydrothermal–Ultrasonic Synthesis of Bi2WO6@rGO Nanocomposites with Tunable Surface Chemistry for Visible-Light Photocatalytic Degradation of Organic Dye
摘要
In this study, Bi2WO6 nanoparticles and Bi2WO6@rGO nanocomposites for photocatalytic decomposition of the organic dye Disperse Red 152 (DR152) were synthesized by a hydrothermal method combined with ultrasonic vibration. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) analytical techniques were used to investigate the structure, surface morphology, chemical composition, bonding, and optical properties of the materials. The results showed that the fabricated materials were nanoflakes with a thickness of 10–20 nm. The combination of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and Bi2WO6 significantly increased the surface area of the material from 2.77 m2 g−1 to 16.47 m2 g−1. This process increases the absorption capacity of the material in the visible region, with the bandgap reduced from 2.885 eV to 2.775 eV, and at the same time reduces the recombination of electron and hole pairs, which increases the photocatalytic ability of the material, resulting in an increase in lifetime from 0.104 ms to 0.289 ms. Photocatalytic tests with Disperse Red 152 (DR152) dye show a significant improvement in degradation efficiency under visible light. In particular, BWG-7 shows the ability to remove the dye almost completely (≈96.96%) in the presence of H2O2 and still achieves 87.48% removal efficiency after five cycles. These results confirm that Bi2WO6@rGO nanocomposite particles have great potential for application as photocatalysts for treating water environments contaminated with toxic organic dyes under visible light or sunlight.
Graphical Abstract