In situ growth of Bi2MoO6 on reduced graphene oxide nanosheets for improved visible-light photocatalytic activity

A series of hierarchical reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-Bi2MoO6 composites were fabricated via a facile solvothermal route. In the reaction process, Bi2MoO6 nanoflakes were in situ grown on the graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets. Meanwhile, GO was reduced during the solvothermal reaction. Such a synthetic strategy can form effective interfacial contact and strong interaction between Bi2MoO6 nanoflakes and RGO nanosheets, which can facilitate the transfer of photogenerated charge and hence reduce the recombination rate of excited carriers. The enhanced charge transfer properties were proved by surface photovoltage spectroscopy (SPV) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The obtained hierarchical RGO-Bi2MoO6 composites showed more significant visible light photoactivity for the degradation of rhodamine B than single Bi2MoO6 and a mechanical mixture of RGO and Bi2MoO6. The enhanced photocatalytic performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect of improved electron-hole pair separation, boosted catalytic active sites and light harvesting.