Hydrothermal synthesis of novel heterostructured Fe2O3/Bi2S3 nanorods with enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light

Abstract The development of efficient visible-light photocatalyst heterostructures remains a major concern for obtaining desirable material properties and effective carrier transformation. Here, we demonstrate, for the first time, the synthesis of novel heterostructures of Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 nanorods via a one-step hydrothermal route and employed effectively as visible-light-driven photocatalysts for the degradation of organic pollutants of methylene blue dye (MB) and phenol. TEM and FE-SEM images displayed that Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 heterostructure is nanorods with ∼30–60 nm diameter and 0.5–1 μm length. The newly prepared Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 nanorods exhibit greatly enhanced photocatalytic activity toward both MB and phenol compared to pure Bi 2 S 3 and the heterostructure with low molar ratio of 0.06 Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 exhibits the best photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation. A maximum degradation efficiency of MB and phenol ∼90% and 96% was accomplished using Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 nanorods compared to only 60% and 69% using pure Bi 2 S 3 , respectively. The photodegradation rates for MB and phenol are promoted respectively as ∼2.6 and 3 times using Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 heterostructure higher than pure Bi 2 S 3 . Photoluminescence spectra measurement along with the calculation of relative band alignment indicated that Fe 2 O 3 /Bi 2 S 3 heterostructure significantly suppress the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, which is beneficial to improve the photocatalytic activity. The facile synthesis approach, unique photocatalytic activity and excellent reusability of the current Fe 2 O 3 modified Bi 2 S 3 nanostructure make it a promising photocatalyst for the environmental remediation related fields.