Enhanced photocatalytic property of α-SnWO4 nanoplates by h-BN decorating

In this work, a series of h-BN/α-SnWO4 (BN/SW) nanocomposites with different h-BN concentrations (0.3–1.0 wt%) were prepared through a hydrothermal method. The composition, structure and morphology of BN/SW nanocomposites were systematically investigated. The formation of BN/SW heterojunction was evidenced by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The BN/SW composites showed plate-to-plate structure consisting α-SnWO4 and h-BN nanoplates. The optical and photoelectrochemical studies revealed that the decorating of h-BN can significantly facilitate the separation of the photo-created charge carries due to the formation of heterostructure. As a result, BN/SW hetero-structure exhibited the superior photocatalytic performance under visible light, which was confirmed by the photo-degradation of methyl orange (MO) and tetracycline (TC). Especially, the BN/SW-0.5 sample has the best rate constant of 0.0323 min−1, which is 4.6 times larger than that of α-SnWO4. Based on trapping experiment, the h+ radical was identified as the dominant reactive species, and ·O2− and ·OH also made contribution to the photocatalysis. In addition, the photocatalytic enhancement mechanism of BN/SW heterojunction was proposed. This study shed light on the roles of h-BN in the design of photocatalysts with high-performance.