abstract
- © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.Parallel to the fast growing of population around the world, there has been a rapid increase in the amount of toxic organic waste that end up in water bodies, which is a threat to human health and to the environment. Because of this, there is need for the development of materials that are able to degrade them while using the sunlight. In this work, a Bi2O3/rGO/MoO3 composite was successfully synthesized by a solvothermal method under ambient pressure and low temperature. SEM, STEM and XRD techniques were used to characterize the morphological and crystallographic properties of the composite. It was demonstrated that the amount of GO in the synthesis of the composite has a great effect in the photocatalytic activity and it was found that the best ratio between Bi2O3 and GO was 300:1. The synthesized composite photocatalyst with ratio of 300:1 presented and enhanced photocatalytic activity for Rhodamine B as it was able to degrade around 70 % after 240 min under visible light irradiation, compared to pristine Bi2O3 that was able to degrade around 55 %. Results from this study illustrate the fabrication of a new ternary composite, which shows promising results for its application in the degradation of organic pollutants in water.