Preparation of spherical filler-like ZnFe₂O₄/Bi₂MoO₆ surrounded by nanosheets and its photocatalytic applications

ABSTRACT

In this article, the spherical filler-like ZnFe₂O₄/Bi₂MoO₆ (ZFO/BMO) surrounded by nanosheets were synthesized by a solvothermal method using spherical ZnFe₂O₄ as a matrix. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) were used to characterize the prepared samples. The photocatalytic performance of the material was detected under 420 nm visible light by Rhodamine B (RhB). The degradation results indicated that the ZFO/BMO photocatalyst with 20% ZnFe₂O₄ content (ZFO/BMO-2) demonstrated highly efficient performance. The constructed Z-type ZFO/BMO heterojunction lengthens the visible light absorption threshold and improves the photocatalytic activity. Furthermore, ZFO/BMO heterojunction composite photocatalyst can be recycled effectively by applying an appropriate external magnetic field. It has important research value in photocatalysis and recycling.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Spherical filler-like
• nanosheets
• Z-type
• magnetic
• photocatalysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Muhammad Asim Khan http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7683-0102

Fengyun Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2359-9875

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [Grants Number 51672134, 51572127 and 51572130].