BiVO4, Bi2WO6 and Bi2MoO6 photocatalysis: A brief review

In recent years, photocatalytic technologies have been extensively studied and diffusely used in water splitting, decomposition of organic pollutants, reduction of carbon dioxide, etc. As a type of eye-catching semiconductors, BiVO4, Bi2WO6, and Bi2MoO6 (denoted as BiaAOb) have become a hotspot in photocatalytic researches due to their crystal structure stability, high light quantum and electronic transmission efficiency, and outstanding energy utilization capacity. However, pristine BiaAOb (A = V, W, and Mo) possesses several drawbacks, such as low separation efficiency of photo-excited electron-hole pairs, low specific surface area, as well as the poor quantum utilization, which restrict their photocatalytic performance. Considerable efforts, such as nanostructure modification, surface engineering, and heterojunction/homojunction fabrication, have been conducted to solve these problems. This integrated review aims to sum up recent advances in current studies on fabrication of high efficiency BiaAOb photocatalysts to accelerate the developments of BiaAOb-based materials in the photocatalysis (PC) field. The current challenges and prospects of BiaAOb are emphasized which stretches the existing fundamental theories of PC as well as provide a promising strategy to fabricate high efficiency BiaAOb catalysts to control environmental pollution and assist the sustainable development of energy.