The novel SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposites were successfully fabricated by a thermal decomposition approach. The as-prepared samples were characterized by XRD, XPS, SEM, EDS, FTIR, DRS and PL spectra. The results show that the SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposites are composed of perovskite SrTiO3 nanoparticles and tetragonal Bi5O7I nanorods. The SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposites exhibit an excellent photocatalytic performance for the degradation of RhB solution under simulated solar light irradiation, which is superior to that of pristine Bi5O7I and SrTiO3. In particular, the 30 wt% SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposite is found as the optimal composites, over which the dye degradation reaches 89.6% for 150 min of photocatalysis. The photocatalytic degradation rate of the 30 wt% SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposite is found to be 3.97 times and 12.5 times higher than that of bare Bi5O7I and SrTiO3, respectively. The reactive species trapping experiments suggest that [Formula: see text] and holes are the main active species responsible for the RhB degradation. In addition, the PL spectra elucidate the effective separation of photoinduced electron-hole pairs. Further, the possible photocatalytic mechanism of the SrTiO3/Bi5O7I nanocomposites is also elucidated based on the experimental evidences.
Keywords: Bi5O7I; Mechanism; Nanocomposite; Photocatalytic; SrTiO3.