Cellulose-templated Bi₂SiO₅ nanorods with enhanced UV/vis light utilization efficiency for high-performance photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants

The narrow light response of semiconductor photocatalysts has greatly limited their photocatalytic activity, and how to regulate the photocatalytic activity in a simple and effective way is an extremely important issue. In this work, a simple and efficient cellulose-induced strategy towards ordered assembly of inorganic oxides was developed to fabricate Bi2SiO5 nanorods for high-performance ultraviolet/visible-light photocatalytic degradation of organic contaminants. The addition of cellulose dramatically changed the morphology of the nanoparticle catalysts from sheets to rods, leading to smaller dimensions and higher surface area. The as-prepared nanocatalysts exhibited excellent light utilization and photocatalytic activities toward contaminant degradation, and the enhancement of light absorbance enabled the complete degradation of 100 mg L-1 RhB solution in 60 min (1 sun, UV and vis), which was much faster than that reported previously. The electrochemical and photocurrent analysis revealed that the high photo-induced carrier separation and transfer efficiency of the nanorods enhanced the ultraviolet/visible-light utilization efficiency. The photoinduced active species generated by the nanorods were identified as superoxide radicals (O2-) by free radical scavenging tests. This study provided a simple, efficient and promising biomass-based strategy for the performance regulation of photocatalytic materials.