Inductive effect of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) on morphology and photocatalytic performance of Bi2WO6

Bi 2 WO 6 has great potential applications in the field of photocatalyst due to its excellent visible-light photocatalytic performance. This work studied the detailed morphological evolution of Bi 2 WO 6 particles synthesized in a simple hydrothermal system induced by the stabilizer poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The XRD and HRTEM results show PVP would not change the crystal structure of Bi 2 WO 6 , but the distribution of PVP on the initially formed Bi 2 WO 6 nanosheets will induce the crystal growth, resulting in a distinct morphology evolution of Bi 2 WO 6 with the increase of the concentration of PVP. At the same time, with the increase of the molecular weight of PVP, the morphology of Bi 2 WO 6 varied from simple sheet-like (S-BWO) to some complicated morphology, such as flower-like (F-BWO), red blood cell-like (B-BWO), and square-pillar-like (SP-BWO). The photocatalytic performances of Bi 2 WO 6 with various morphologies on the decomposition of RhB under visible light irradiation reveal that S-BWO has the best photocatalytic performance, while SP-BWO has the worst. This work not only gives the explanation of the inductive effect of PVP molecular chains on the morphological formation of Bi 2 WO 6 particles, but also provides the controllable way to the preparation of Bi 2 WO 6 with various morphologies taking advantage of the stabilizer PVP.