Heterojunction of BiPO₄/BiOBr photocatalysts for Rhodamine B dye degradation under visible LED light irradiation

Abstract

Abstract BiOBr synthesized by alcoholysis precipitation is used in the preparation of BiPO 4 /BiOBr composites by adding H 3 PO 4 . Pristine BiOBr and a series of BiPO 4 /BiOBr composites have been successfully synthesized using an entirely room‐temperature production process. X‐ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, UV–vis absorption spectroscopy were used to investigated the bulk structure, surface morphology, element composition and optical properties of the samples. The degradation effect of different proportions of BiPO 4 /BiOBr composites, BiOBr and BiPO 4 on Rhodamine B (RhB) was evaluated under visible LED light irradiation. Compared to pure BiOBr and BiPO 4 , the as‐synthesized BiPO 4 /BiOBr composites showed enhanced performance, with 30% BiPO 4 /BiOBr composite showing the best performance, as it could degrade 95.66% of RhB (100 ml, 15 mg/L) within 120 min. The enhanced photocatalytic activity of BiPO 4 /BiOBr was attributed to the heterojunction formation between BiOBr and BiPO 4 and efficient charge separation.