Fabrication, characterization, and photocatalytic studies of novel ZnO/Ag3BiO3 nanocomposites: impressive photocatalysts for degradation of some dyes

Abstract

Aquatic environments are often threatened by toxic dyes released from various industrial wastewaters that are hazardous to the aquatic organisms. Thus, eliminating of these pollutants from water resources has been a critical environmental issue in recent decades. This research work reports the preparation and characterization of novel binary ZnO/Ag3BiO3 photocatalysts, which was applied for visible light decontamination of different dyes. The obtained photocatalysts were investigated by XRD, SEM, FT-IR, EDX, PL, UV–Vis DRS, and BET instruments. The outcomes showed that the weight percentage of Ag3BiO3 has a significant impact on the photocatalytic ability, and the ZnO/Ag3BiO3 (20%) nanocomposite displayed the highest removal rate constant for RhB, which was about 63.5 times greater than the bare ZnO. The enhanced photocatalytic ability was attributed to the enhancement of visible irradiation absorption owing to the existence of the small bandgap Ag3BiO3 semiconductor and improvement of the separation of the carrier charges owing to the formation of ZnO/Ag3BiO3 heterojunction interface. Moreover, the active species scavenging experiments displayed that ·O2− and h+ are the primary species involved during photocatalysis reaction and a detailed reaction mechanism was discussed. This research provides an insight into the progress of fabrication of highly impressive photoactive materials using ZnO for the environmental remediation.