Synthesis of PdAg/Bi<inf>2</inf>WO<inf>6</inf> nanocomposites for efficient photodegradation of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation

Abstract

In this research, heterostructure PdAg/Bi2WO6 nanocomposites as visible light-driven photocatalyst prepared by photodeposition method were studied for photodegradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light irradiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results show that Pd2+ and Ag+ ions were reduced to form bimetallic PdAg nanoparticles on the orthorhombic Bi2WO6 nanoplates by photoreduction reaction. The photodegradation of RhB showed that the loaded bimetallic PdAg nanoparticles can play the significant role in improving the photocatalytic performance of the pure Bi2WO6 nanoplates and heterostructure Pd/Bi2WO6 nanocomposites. Among them, the heterostructure Pd0.7Ag0.3/Bi2WO6 nanocomposites can lead to the highest degradation rate of RhB solution under visible light irradiation which was attributed to the synergistic effect between bimetallic Pd and Ag loaded on top of Bi2WO6 nanoplates by forming the Schottky barrier, suppressing the recombination of charge carriers and enhancing the photocatalytic reaction.