Yeast-templated in situ hydrothermal synthesis of carbon modified Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 microspheres with efficient photocatalytic performance

• Published in: Ceramics international 2024-11, Vol.50 (21), p.42632-42644
• Main Authors: Yang, Li, Jiang, Xiaoxue, Jin, Xiaoman, Zhang, Jierui, Li, Runze, Luo, Yue, Li, Huanyong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bi2MoO6; Bi2S3; Carbon modification; Hydrothermal synthesis; Yeast template
• ISSN: 0272-8842
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2024.08.107

Employment of yeasts as bio-templates to obtain hollow structured microspheres is recognized as a promising strategy in the view of resource utilization and sustainable development. In this study, carbon modified Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 hollow microspheres with rich oxygen vacancies were successfully prepared via in situ hydrothermal synthesis instead of removing yeast templates by calcination. As-obtained samples were characterized using SEM, EDS, TEM, XRD, XPS, EPR and UV–vis DRS analysis. It was shown that carbon modified Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 hollow microspheres, with a diameter of 2.2 μm, inherited the ellipsoidal shape from primitive yeast templates. In situ hydrothermal synthesis not only resulted in the integration of yeast-derived carbon into the Bi2MoO6 structure through Bi–O–C and Mo–O–C bonds, but also produced oxygen vacancy defects in the sample. Under visible light irradiation, the carbon modified Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 photocatalyst exhibited an excellent degradation efficiency, achieving 87.0 % removal of methylene blue (MB) within 100 min. With photoelectric tests and active species trapping experiments, the potential mechanism for the remarkable photocatalytic performance of carbon modified Bi2MoO6/Bi2S3 was discussed preliminarily. This work explored an economical, simple and feasible approach for the multi-strategy modification of photocatalysts, and provided a new cognition on the versatile application of biological templates in material design and fabrication.