title: Novel p-n heterojunction BiOI/CeO2photocatalyst for wider spectrum visible-light photocatalytic degradation of refractory pollutants.
abstract: Recently, visible-light-driven photocatalysts have been widely used in environmental pollutant remediation. In the present study, BiOI/CeO2p-n junction photocatalysts were successfully fabricated using a facile in situ chemical bath method. The BiOI/CeO2p-n junction photocatalysts exhibited excellent photoactivity for the decomposition of the refractory pollutant bisphenol A (BPA) and methylene orange (MO) under visible light illumination. The sample with a 1 : 1 mole ratio of BiOI : CeO2possessed the highest photocatalytic performance out of all of the as-obtained catalysts. Mott-Schottky plots indicated that p-n junctions were successfully constructed between BiOI and CeO2. The optical and electrical properties of the materials demonstrate that the introduction of BiOI can broaden the visible-light absorption region of CeO2, and the transfer rate of the electron-hole pairs dramatically improves through forming a p-n junction. Furthermore, the BPA degradation efficiency exhibited excellent photostability after four consecutive cycles. These features show that the BiOI/CeO2p-n junction has great application potential for refractory pollutant removal from wastewater.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science Engineering, Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. cgniu@hnu.edu.cn cgniu@hotmail.com zgming@hnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ju
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.forename: Cheng-Gang
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Guang-Ming
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Zeng