Alkali-assisted synthesis of direct Z-scheme based Bi2O3/Bi2MoO6 photocatalyst for highly efficient photocatalytic degradation of phenol and hydrogen evolution reaction

A novel direct Z-scheme Bi2O3/Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite was successfully obtained via simple alkali treatment of Bi2MoO6 succeeded by air calcination approach, which exhibited excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of phenol and hydrogen evolution reaction due to the direct Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism. This Z-scheme system not only greatly promoting the efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, but also preserves strong and continuous redox ability, resulting in the very high photocatalytic performance.