Simultaneous introduction of surface plasmon resonance effect and oxygen vacancies onto Bi/Bi2O3 heterostructure for enhancing visible-light photocatalysis

Bi nanoparticles were used to fabricate Bi/Bi2O3 heterojunction by an in situ sintering method in a muffle furnace. The experimental results show that the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect and oxygen vacancy (OV) defects of Bi/Bi2O3 hybrids can enhance the visible-light absorption and carrier separation efficiency, and thus improve the photocatalytic activity of Bi/Bi2O3 composites for tetracycline (TC) degradation under visible-light illumination. Moreover, by means of increasing the calcination time of Bi nanoparticles, the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the as-prepared hybrids shows a tendency of first increasing and then decreasing. When the calcination time was 15 min, a maximum value of 81.7% was reached within 60 min. This is higher than that of 16% of the pristine Bi nanoparticles. In addition, h+ plays a major role during the degradation reaction of TC. This study can provide promising guide for the rational design and development of Bi-based photocatalysts and degradation of antibiotics under solar light illumination.