One-pot preparation of Bi/Bi₂WO₆/reduced graphene oxide as a plasmonic photocatalyst with improved activity under visible light

A novel nanocomposite, Bi nanorods and Bi₂WO₆ nanosheets supported on reduced graphene oxide (Bi/Bi₂WO₆/rGO), was synthesized via a facile one-pot solvothermal method. In the reaction process, Bi₂WO₆ nanosheets and Bi nanorods were grown in situ on the rGO sheets, which were simultaneously achieved by the reduction of GO. Such a synthetic strategy can form effective close interfacial contacts and strong interactions among Bi₂WO₆, Bi and rGO, leading to efficient separation and transfer of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. As a result, the ternary plasmonic photocatalyst exhibits a much higher photocatalytic activity than pure Bi₂WO₆ and the binary composites in the photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B and p-chlorophenol under visible light irradiation, which could be ascribed to the synergic effects of the improved electron-hole pair separation efficiency, enhanced visible-light harvesting and the good adsorptive capacity toward dye molecules.