Facile preparation of hierarchical heterostructured <scp> TiO ₂ /Bi/Bi ₂ MoO ₆ </scp> photocatalyst for phocatalytic degradation of toluene gas

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from different sources has caused huge environmental problems. As a ‘green’ terminal treatment technology, photocatalytic technology is a competitive technology that has practical application prospects for the emission reduction of VOCs. The core problem of photocatalysis technology is constructing a photocatalyst with higher activity. RESULTS: In this work, a new hierarchical heterostructured photocatalyst of TiO₂/Bi/Bi₂MoO₆ was facilely fabricated by solvothermal method with the TiO₂ nanoparticles uniformly distributed on the surface of flower‐like Bi₂MoO₆ nanospheres. Compared with the bare flower‐like Bi₂MoO₆ nanospheres, the band gap width of TiO₂/Bi/Bi₂MoO₆ is wider, which helps to improve the Fermi level‐derived oxidation–reduction capacity of the catalyst. N₂ adsorption–desorption experiments show that the composite material has a larger specific surface area, which is beneficial to improve the mass transfer efficiency in the gas–solid heterogeneous reaction. Photocatalytic data display that, under irradiation by Xenon lamp for 2 h, the degradation rate of toluene gas over TiO₂/Bi/Bi₂MoO₆ reached 26.08%, which is 17.92% higher than that of the bare Bi₂MoO₆ nanospheres. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that coupling TiO₂ could significantly enhance the photocatalytic degradation effect of toluene over the hierarchical heterostructured TiO₂/Bi/Bi₂MoO₆, and this has practical application prospects for the use of photocatalytic technology to treat VOCs pollution. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry