Bismuth-Containing Semiconductor Photocatalysts

Bismuth-containing semiconductor materials as a novel kind of photocatalysts have attracted much more attention due to their high catalytic activities towards the degradation of organic wastes under visible light irradiation. This paper summarizes the research achievements on Bi-containing semiconductor photocatalysts (e.g. 9 bismuth oxide, bismuth titanate, bismuth tungstate, bismuth vanadate, bismuth oxyhalide, and so on). Among the reported Bi-containing photocatalysts, bismuth tungstate and bismuth vanadate are very attractive. Especially, it is shown that many Bi-containing semiconductor photocatalysts possesses significantly stronger optical absorption properties and higher photocatalytic activities than commercial TiO2 (P25) under visible light irradiation. Moreover, most of Bi-containing semiconductor photocatalysts have good stability. On the other hand, the optical absorption abilities of Bi-containing semiconductor photocatalysts can be obviously improved by chemical modification or constructing heterostructure. Additionally, although the position of conduction band of common Bi-containing photocatalysts is lower than the redox potential of hydrogen, many Bi-containing semiconductor materials can be used as water splitting catalysts by chemical modification. We tried to clarify the relationship between the structure and catalytic performance of the Bi-containing photocatalysts. Prospect on the development of Bi-containing semiconductor photocatalyts is also proposed. It is emphasized that for shortening the peroid of catalyst development, specail Bi-containing photocataylsts should be designed and fabricated by adopting theoretical calculation methods according to their potential applications.