Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2015, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (3): 540-544.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201501131

• CATALYSIS AND SURFACE SCIENCE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Improved Photocatalytic Degradation of Phenol over β-Bi2O3 Modified Bi2WO6 and Possible Mechanism

LI Xiao-Jin, SHENG Jia-Yi, CHEN Hai-Hang, XU Yi-Ming   

  1. State Key Laboaratory of Silicon, Departement of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, P. R. China
  • Received:2014-10-30 Revised:2015-01-12 Published:2015-03-06
  • Contact: XU Yi-Ming E-mail:xuym@zju.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21377110) and National Key Basic Research Program of China (973) (2011CB936003).

Abstract:

In this study, a series of Bi2O3-containing Bi2WO6 catalysts were prepared by a simple mixing method. We used the oxidation of phenol in water under UV light as a model reaction, and found that as the amount of Bi2O3 in the mixture increased, its photocatalytic activity increased, and then started to decrease. A maximum activity was observed with the catalyst containing 12.5% (mass fraction, w) of Bi2O3, about 4 times that of Bi2WO6. Solid characterization revealed that the composite was a mixture of β-Bi2O3 and Bi2WO6. The water oxidation photocurrent over the β-Bi2O3/Bi2WO6 thin film electrode was much larger than the sum of the photocurrents of the β-Bi2O3 and Bi2WO6 thin film electrodes. It is proposed that there is a valence hole transfer from Bi2WO6 to β-Bi2O3, which improves the charge separation efficiency, and consequently increases the rate of phenol degradation.

Key words: Bismuth oxide, Bismuth tungstate, Photocatalysis, Charge transfer, Organic degradation