Facile synthesis of bismuth terephthalate metal–organic frameworks and their visible-light-driven photocatalytic activities toward Rhodamine B dye

In this work, the bismuth-terephthalate frameworks (Bi-BDC) were prepared by a facile solvothermal approach. The prepared Bi-BDC MOFs were characterized by XRD, TGA, FT-IR, SEM, and UV-vis DRS analyses. The results indicated that the synthesis temperature affected the crystallinity and morphologies of the Bi-BDC frameworks. Notably, the produced Bi-BDC at low temperatures (80 and 100 oC) exhibited enhanced light absorption ability. The photodegradation experiment of rhodamine (RhB) showed that the prepared Bi-BDC-100 sample had the highest removal efficiency of ca. ∼ 98% after 270 min of visible LED light illumination. In addition, the HPLC-MS analysis revealed that RhB was photocatalytically degraded over the Bi-BDC via the carboxylation and dealkylation mechanism. Furthermore, the removal efficiency of the organic pollutant was optimized by monitoring the effects of catalyst dosage, dye concentration, and pH media. Finally, cyclic tests implied that the synthesized Bi-BDC MOF had good stability and reusability.