Development of Bi₂O₃-ZnO heterostructure for enhanced photodegradation of rhodamine B and reactive yellow dyes

Semiconductor based photocatalysis is one of the effective techniques of AOPs for environmental remediation. In present work, the development of an efficient photocatalyst formed by coupling of p-type Bi₂O₃ and n-type ZnO is reported. The Bi₂O₃-ZnO heterostructures with 5, 10 and 15% Bi₂O₃ were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The prepared heterostructures were characterized by various advanced techniques including XRD, XPS, UV-Visible spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM and surface area measurement. The prepared ZnO and Bi₂O₃-ZnO heterostructures were tested as photocatalysts for photodegradation of dyes using mixed solution of rhodamine B and reactive yellow dyes. The 5% Bi₂O₃-ZnO heterostructure was found as most efficient photocatalyst with 93 and 91% photodegradation of rhodamine B and reactive yellow dyes, respectively. It was found that incorporation of 5% Bi₂O₃ with ZnO enhanced the photocatalytic activity about 15 times towards photodegradation of dyes.