Influence of Fe dopant concentrations on physicochemical and photocatalytic properties of Bi<inf>2</inf>WO<inf>6</inf>/CeO<inf>2</inf> nanocomposites for rhodamine B degradation

Abstract

© 2020, Islamic Azad University. Fe-doped Bi2WO6/CeO2 nanocomposite materials were prepared by co-precipitation and hydrothermal methods. The physicochemical properties and photocatalytic activities of Bi2WO6/CeO2 nanocomposites after doping with Fe3+ ions were systematically investigated. The 0.2Fe-doped Bi2WO6/CeO2 nanocomposites exhibited the optimal photocatalytic activity in the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB), reaching to 62% degradation after 120 min irradiation, which was 10.3 and 2.7 times higher than CeO2 and Bi2WO6, respectively. The improved photocatalytic activity was mainly ascribed to the enhanced charge carrier separation efficiency of the direct Z-scheme heterojunction system. Moreover, the effective trapping of photogenerated electrons and holes by iron ions inhibits the electron–hole recombination. By a trapping experiment, the main radicals (O2·−) in the photocatalysis experiment were further ascertained. Finally, we proposed the photocatalytic mechanism of Fe-doped Bi2WO6/CeO2 nanocomposite for RhB degradation.