Enhanced Photocatalytic Degradation of RhB by Plasmonic Type-II Ag/Ag2MoO4/BiOI Heterojunction

In this study, an Ag/Ag2MoO4/BiOI photocatalyst was prepared through simple hydrothermal method and precipitation method. The as-prepared Ag/Ag2MoO4/BiOI composites display a hierarchical flower-like microsphere structure. The results show that under the irradiation of visible light, the AB-60 (Ag2MoO4/BiOI ratio is 60 %) composite photocatalyst has the best degradation rate of 99.4 % for Rhodamine B (RhB), which is 3.17 times and 7.55 times higher than that of Ag2MoO4 and BiOI, respectively. Based on the capture experiment of active species, the possibility type-II mechanism was proposed. Through the analysis of the photocatalytic mechanism, the significant improvement in photocatalytic performance was attributed to the effective separation of electron-hole pairs caused by the formation of heterojunction and the enhancement of visible light absorption because of SPR effect. This study could provide an important perspective for heterojunction photocatalysts in environmental governance.