A one-step hydrothermal preparation strategy for layered BiIO4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions with enhanced visible light photocatalytic activities

Through the introduction of a new Bi-based semiconductor BiIO4, the novel BiIO4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions composed of two layered structures were successfully fabricated by a one-step hydrothermal method. The as-prepared samples were thoroughly characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, XPS, ICP, DRS and PL spectra technologies. The photodegradation experiments indicated that the BiIO4/Bi2WO6 composites showed much higher visible-light-driven (VLD) photocatalytic activity than those of either individual BiIO4 and Bi2WO6 for rhodamine B (RhB) degradation, which are attributed to the high separation of photogenerated electron–hole pairs resulted by the BiIO4/Bi2WO6 heterojunctions. This is the first report of the photocatalytic activity of the new Bi-based compound BiIO4 and BiIO4/Bi2WO6 composites under visible light. Moreover, our research provided a new layered semiconductor, which can be applied in the future for heterojunction construction and energy band structure design.