BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction nanofibers: Enhanced photocatalytic activity, charge separation mechanism and magnetic separability.

Uniform BiMoO nanosheets were grown in a high dispersed fashion on electrospun BiFeO nanofibers via a solvothermal technique. The loading amount of BiMoO in the BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction nanofibers could be controlled by adjusting the precursor concentrations in the solvothermal process. The XPS analysis, energy band position calculation and trapping experiments all proved that the BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction is a Z-scheme heterojunction. The Z-scheme BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction had a much higher photocatalytic activity in the visible-light photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) than pure BiFeO nanofibers or pure BiMoO nanosheets. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to the formation of Z-scheme BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunctions, which could be beneficial to the separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs. Moreover, the BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction nanofibers could be easily separated under an external magnetic field via the ferromagnetic BiFeO. After several cycles, the photocatalytic activity of the BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction no longer significantly decreased suggesting that the BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction is stable. These Z-scheme BiMoO/BiFeO heterojunction nanofibers with highly visible-light photocatalytic activity, excellent chemical stability and magnetic separability could be useful in many practical applications.