title: Porous peanut-like Bi2O3-BiVO4 composites with heterojunctions: one-step synthesis and their photocatalytic properties.
abstract: For the first time, porous peanut-like Bi(2)O(3)-BiVO(4) composites with heterojunctions have been synthesized by a one-step mixed solvothermal method with the assistance of a l-lysine template. A mixture of ethylene glycol (EG) and H(2)O (volume ratio of EG-H(2)O = 3:1) is used as the solvent. Unlike the traditional methods, no concentrated HNO(3) and/or NaOH are involved in diluting Bi and V sources in the adopted approach. The as-synthesized peanut-like samples are rough and porous on the surface and to some extent are interior-hollow. The degradation of methylene blue (MB) is employed to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of the Bi(2)O(3)-BiVO(4) composite. It is observed that the composite performs much better than Bi(2)O(3) and BiVO(4), plausibly due to heterojunctions formed between Bi(2)O(3) and BiVO(4). To investigate the relationship between structure and performance, the as-synthesized samples are characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM (HRTEM), UV-vis DRS, PL and nitrogen adsorption-desorption methods. Additionally, a possible growth mechanism of this hollow peanut-like structure and the separation process of photogenerated electron-hole pairs on the heterojunctions have been discussed.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, Hunan, PR China.
authors: Lang
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Zhang
authors: Rui
authors: R
authors: Huang
authors: Shuang-Feng
authors: SF
authors: Yin
authors: Sheng-Lian
authors: SL
authors: Luo
authors: Chak-Tong
authors: CT
authors: Au