A novel 2D nanosheets self-assembly camellia-like ordered mesoporous Bi12ZnO20 catalyst with excellent photocatalytic property

Abstract In this study, a kind of novel camellia-like Bi12ZnO20 photocatalyst was synthesized by self-assembly process of 2D nanosheets, and the ordered mesoporous were distributed on the surfaces of the camellia petals. A kind of ordered mesoporous ZnO (OMZ) material must be used as precursor, and the sodium sulfosalicylate (Na3SSA) must be used as structure-directing agent in hydrothermal reaction process. The Bi12ZnO20 compound has even been reported in Bi12ZnO20–Bi2WO6 heterostructures, it is the only one literature that we can retrieve now, and the 3D ordered mesoporous camellia-like Bi12ZnO20 catalyst has never been reported in the past. The Bi based photocatalysts have much better photodegradation characteristics, but the photolysis water characteristics is unsatisfactory. The prepared Bi12ZnO20 material exhibited the photocatalytic activity to Rhodamine B (RhB) photocatalytic degradation and photolysis water to produce hydrogen under visible light irradiation which was much infrequent in the past references. The camellia-like ordered mesoporous structure could provide the more adsorption capacity to fluid and the more active sites for the photocatalytic reaction, could enhance the light-harvesting capacity, photogenerated electron-hole separation efficiency and electronic transport efficient, which were all main reasons for the improvement of photocatalytic properties. The possible morphology growth mechanism and photocatalytic mechanism were discussed.