Co3O4-Bi2O3 heterojunction: An effective photocatalyst for photodegradation of rhodamine B dye
Muhammad Saeed, Norah Alwadai, Lamia Ben Farhat, Afifa Baig, Walid Nabgan, Munawar Iqbal
Abstract
Recently, the research on the remediation of aqueous organic pollutants over visible-light-active photocatalysts has got much attention. Therefore, this study reports the fabrication of visible-light-active Co3O4-Bi2O3 heterojunction photocatalyst for the photodegradation of rhodamine B dye. The Co3O4-Bi2O3 heterojunction was synthesized by the coprecipitation method and characterized by XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, TGA, and FTIR. The as-prepared Co3O4-Bi2O3 heterojunction was utilized as a photocatalyst for the abatement of rhodamine B dye. It was observed that Co3O4-Bi2O3 showed the best catalytic performance with ∼92% degradation of rhodamine B dye than Co3O4 and Bi2O3 with 14 and 34% removal of rhodamine B dye, respectively. The rate constant for Co3O4-Bi2O3 catalyzed photodegradation of rhodamine B was 6 times and 3 times higher than the rate constant for Co3O4 catalyzed and Bi2O3 catalyzed photodegradation of rhodamine B, respectively. The as-prepared Co3O4-Bi2O3 exhibited the highest catalytic performance at pH 8.