title: p-n junction CuO/BiVO₄ heterogeneous nanostructures: synthesis and highly efficient visible-light photocatalytic performance.
abstract: A new strategy via coupling a polyol route with an oxidation process has been developed to successfully synthesize p-n junction CuO/BiVO4 heterogeneous nanostructures. The experimental results reveal that the as-prepared p-n junction CuO/BiVO4 heterogeneous nanostructures exhibit much higher visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity for the degradation of model dye rhodamine B (RhB) than the pure BiVO4 nanocrystals. The photocatalytic degradation rate (C/C0) of the RhB for p-n junction CuO/BiVO4 heterogeneous nanostructures is about two times higher than that of pure BiVO4 nanocrystals. The enhanced photocatalytic efficiency is attributed to a large number of p-n junctions in CuO/BiVO4 heterogeneous nanostructures, which effectively reduces the recombination of electrons and holes by charge transfer from n-type BiVO4 to the attached p-type CuO nanoparticles. This work not only provides an efficient route to enhance the visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity of BiVO4, but also offers a new strategy for fabricating p-n junction heterogeneous nanostructure photocatalysts, which are expected to show considerable potential application in solar-driven wastewater treatment and water splitting.
authors.affiliation: School of Science, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China. wzhwangmuc@163.com.
authors.forename: Wenzhong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Zhizhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xuanzhen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qingshan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Wenliang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Honglong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shi