Synergistic introducing of oxygen vacancies and hybrid of organic semiconductor: Realizing deep structure modulation on Bi5O7I for high-efficiency photocatalytic pollutant oxidation

Abstract Under inducing of acetic acid, Perylene imide (PDI) were successfully self-assembled through strong π-π stacking with the form of face-to-face. The structure of bismuth-rich Bi5O7I was maintained. A mechanism was proposed to illustrate the self-assembly of PDI supramolecules on the surface of Bi5O7I inducing by acetic acid, which was confirmed by the calculation of thermodynamics. Furthermore, there were multiple oxygen vacancies in the Bi5O7I samples during the alcohothermal process. The introduction of oxygen vacancies enhanced the performance of visible light-harvesting and changed the band structure of Bi5O7I. Under visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic activities of Bi5O7I-OVs/PDI for the degradation of organic pollutant were significantly improved. The improved activity was attributed to the high ability of holes oxidation of bismuth-rich metastable Bi5O7I and the introduction of oxygen vacancies. This study provided a method for PDI self-assembled on the surface of bismuth-rich BixOyXz and an effective strategy for improving photocatalytic activity.