ZnO/BiOI Heterostructures: Photoinduced Charge-Transfer Property and Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalytic Activity

In this study, ZnO/BiOI heterostructures were synthesized by a facile chemical bath method at low temperature. Control of the morphology and constituents of the ZnO/BiOI heterostructures was realized by simply tuning the Bi/Zn molar ratios. The resulting ZnO/BiOI heterostructures exhibited high photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methyl orange under visible-light irradiation. The high photocatalytic activity of the ZnO/BiOI heterostructures was first attributed to their high surface area. Surface photovoltage spectroscopy and transient photovoltage measurements revealed that the photoinduced charge-transfer property of p-type BiOI could be improved greatly by coupling with n-type ZnO. The…