One-step hydrothermal preparation strategy for nanostructured WO3/Bi2WO6 heterojunction with high visible light photocatalytic activity

The novel heterojunction WO3/Bi2WO6 photocatalysts were successfully prepared by a facile hydrothermal preparation strategy. The as-prepared sample consists of WO3 nanoparticles growing on the primary Bi2WO6 nanoplatelets. The different morphology of the WO3/Bi2WO6 can be obtained by adjusting the amount of nitric acid and Na2WO4 center dot 2H(2)O. Because of the visible light response and appropriate band edges of Bi2WO6 and WO3, the WO3/Bi2WO6 hierarchical heterojunction exhibits high photocatalytic activity over that of the pure Bi2WO6 and WO3 towards the decomposition of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. This can be ascribed to the interconnected interface of WO3 and Bi2WO6 heterostructure, which leads to the high transfer rate of photoinduced charge carriers. More importantly, the hierarchical WO3/Bi2WO6 heterojunction is not only highly stable but also very easy to be separated by simple filtration for reuse. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.