One-pot synthesis of the BiVO4/BiOBr heterojunction composite for enhanced photocatalytic performance

In this work, the BiVO 4 /BiOBr heterojunction composite was successfully prepared by a simple one-pot hydrothermal process. The formation of BiVO 4 and BiOBr and the photocatalytic performance of the prepared BiVO 4 /BiOBr composite were significantly influenced by the addition of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and the concentration of HNO 3 used during the process of preparing BiVO 4 . Rhodamine B (RhB) can be completely degraded in 15 min by the BiVO 4 /BiOBr composite under the illumination of visible light (λ＞420 nm). The degradation efficiency of the BiVO 4 /BiOBr composite is dramatically promoted compared with that of pure BiVO 4 . The significant promotion of the photocatalytic degradation performance can be attributed to the existence of the heterojunction electric field formed on the interface between BiVO 4 and BiOBr, which significantly enhances the separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes.