Large-scale synthesis of porous Bi2O3 with oxygen vacancies for efficient photodegradation of methylene blue

Abstract

Photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants has become a hot research topic because of its low energy consumption and environmental-friendly characteristics. Bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) nanocrystals with a bandgap ranging from 2.0 eV to 2.8 eV have attracted increasing attention due to high activity of photodegradation of organic pollutants by utilizing visible light. Though several methods have been developed to prepare Bi2O3-based semiconductor materials over recent years, it is still difficult to prepare highly active Bi2O3 catalysts in large scale with a simple method. Therefore, developing simple and feasible methods for the preparation of Bi2O3 nanocrystals in large scale is important for the potential applications in industrial wastewater treatment. In this work, we successfully prepared porous Bi2O3 in large scale via etching commercial BiSn powders, followed by thermal treatment with air. The acquired porous Bi2O3 exhibited excellent activity and stability in photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. Further investigation of the mechanism witnessed that the suitable band structure of porous Bi2O3 allowed the generation of reactive oxygen species, such as O2−· and ·OH, which effectively degraded MB.