Engineering BiVO4@Bi2S3 heterojunction by cosharing bismuth atoms toward boosted photocatalytic Cr(VI) reduction

Xinyi Lian; Jiguang Zhang; Yue Zhan; Yanping Zhang; Shuangli Yang; Zhou Chen; Yunyun Dong; Weiping Fang; Xiaodong Yi

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124705

Engineering BiVO₄@Bi₂S₃ heterojunction by cosharing bismuth atoms toward boosted photocatalytic Cr(VI) reduction

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Mar 15:406:124705. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124705. Epub 2020 Dec 8.

Authors

Xinyi Lian¹, Jiguang Zhang¹, Yue Zhan¹, Yanping Zhang¹, Shuangli Yang¹, Zhou Chen², Yunyun Dong³, Weiping Fang¹, Xiaodong Yi⁴

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Productions of Alcohols, Ethers and Esters, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
² National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Productions of Alcohols, Ethers and Esters, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China. Electronic address: zhouchen@xmu.edu.cn.
³ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng 252059, PR China.
⁴ National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Productions of Alcohols, Ethers and Esters, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China. Electronic address: xdyi@xmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33316678
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124705

Abstract

The photocatalytic efficiency is limited by poor charge separation efficiency and high carrier transport activation energy (CTAE) of photogenerated electron/hole pairs than traditional semiconductor. Hybridizing nanostructure with two staggered alignment band structure is proved as an effective strategy to mitigate these two challenges but still suffers a strong coulomb electrostatic repulsive force between two heterogeneous semiconductors. Here, we steer a friendly sulfurization process to construct BiVO₄@Bi₂S₃ heterojunction with a scenario of cosharing Bi atoms. The intimate atomic-level contact between BiVO₄ and Bi₂S₃ not only enhances the visible-light absorption and lowers CTAE, but also accelerate carrier's separation efficiency, which enables it to deliver the best photocatalytic performance toward reduction of Cr(VI). BiVO₄@Bi₂S₃ only needs less than 40 min to completely reduce 50 ppm Cr(VI) solution. The type II heterojunction photocatalytic mechanism is systematically studied to decipher the carriers' transfer track between BiVO₄ and Bi₂S₃. Our new finding of engineering inorganic heterojunction by cosharing atoms opens a new avenue to other similar materials for potential applications.

Keywords: Atomic-level; Carrier transport activation energy; Cr(VI) removal; Heterojunction; Photocatalysis.