Construction of C60-decorated SWCNTs (C60-CNTs)/bismuth-based oxide ternary heterostructures with enhanced photocatalytic activity

Article abstract of DOI:10.1039/c7ra11056a

Novel nanostructured carbon/BiVO₄ and nanostructured carbon/Bi₂MoO₆ nanocomposite photocatalysts were fabricated via a facile hydrothermal process by using fullerene (C₆₀)-decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) as the carbon source, which are denoted as C₆₀-CNTs. The fabricated nanocomposites were characterized by various analytical techniques. The results showed that the C₆₀-CNTs are intimately bound to the bismuth-based oxide surfaces. The UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra of C₆₀-CNTs/bismuth-based oxide nanocomposites exhibited increased visible-light absorption compared to pure bismuth-based oxides. Moreover, the ternary nanocomposites demonstrated significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible light. The enhanced performance is attributed to the extended absorption in the visible-light region resulting from the incorporation of C₆₀-CNTs, high specific surface area, and efficient separation of electron-hole pairs by the ternary composite system. In addition, the radical-trapping experiments revealed that the holes and O₂^- play major roles in the decolorization of Rh B under visible-light irradiation.

Full text of DOI:10.1039/c7ra11056a

RSC Advances
View Article Online
View Journal | View Issue
PAPER
Construction of C60-decorated SWCNTs (C60-
CNTs)/bismuth-based oxide ternary
heterostructures with enhanced photocatalytic
activity†
Cite this: RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847
*
*
and Ning Yan
Xue Lin, Yang Xi, Rui Zhao, Junyou Shi
Novel nanostructured carbon/BiVO4 and nanostructured carbon/Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite photocatalysts
were fabricated via a facile hydrothermal process by using fullerene (C60)-decorated single-walled carbon
nanotubes (SWCNTs) as the carbon source, which are denoted as C60-CNTs. The fabricated
nanocomposites were characterized by various analytical techniques. The results showed that the C60
-
CNTs are intimately bound to the bismuth-based oxide surfaces. The UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra
of C60-CNTs/bismuth-based oxide nanocomposites exhibited increased visible-light absorption
compared to pure bismuth-based oxides. Moreover, the ternary nanocomposites demonstrated
significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity for the degradation of rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible
light. The enhanced performance is attributed to the extended absorption in the visible-light region
resulting from the incorporation of C60-CNTs, high specific surface area, and efficient separation of
electron–hole pairs by the ternary composite system. In addition, the radical-trapping experiments
revealed that the holes and O2cꢀ play major roles in the decolorization of Rh B under visible-light irradiation.
Received 8th October 2017
Accepted 13th November 2017
DOI: 10.1039/c7ra11056a
rsc.li/rsc-advances
degradation.15,16 Nevertheless, pure Bi2MoO6 itself has been
a bit of a disappointment as a photocatalyst due to the fast
1. Introduction
recombination of the photo-induced electrons and holes in the
material. Much work is centered on methods that can transform
BiVO4 or Bi2MoO6 into a more efficient visible light photo-
catalytic material.17–19 Among the various methods, the
construction of composite photocatalysts has shown to be an
effective approach for improving the photocatalytic efficiency
for the degradation of organic contaminants.19
Semiconductor photocatalysis is a promising environmental
remediation technology that can be used to treat inorganic or
organic pollutants in the environment.1–3 To date, many semi-
conductor photocatalysts have been studied for use in water
splitting and/or environmental remediation.4–6 Among them,
bismuth-based semiconductors (e.g., Bi2WO6, BiVO4, Bi4Ti3O12,
Bi2O2CO3, BiOI and Bi2MoO6) have attracted great attention due
to their many advantages, such as superior photocatalytic
performance under UV and visible light irradiation, unique
layered structures, resistance to photocorrosion, chemical
stability, low/non-toxicity, and abundance in the earth.7–12
Among the various bismuth-based semiconductors, BiVO4 with
a band gap of around 2.40 eV is a strong candidate because of its
properties that include good photoconductivity and signicant
visible-light response.13,14 However, some researches have
revealed that the photocatalytic activity of pure BiVO4 is
comparatively low due to the difficulty in the separation of
photogenerated electron–hole pairs.14 Bi2MoO6, with excellent
intrinsic physical and chemical properties, exhibits photo-
catalytic activity for water splitting and organic pollutant
In recent years, carbonaceous materials such as activated
carbon (AC), carbon dots (CDots), fullerene (C60), carbon
nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene have been widely employed for
the enhancement of photocatalytic performances of semi-
conductors, which has thus attracted considerable atten-
tion.19,20 Carbon nanostructured materials have been used as
coupling materials for bismuth-based composites due to their
excellent electron accepting and electron-transporting proper-
ties.20 Over the past few years, combination of two kinds of
carbon materials such as C60-CNTs, C60-RGO, and GO-CDots as
a new class of carbon nanostructured materials has attracted
much attention due to their extraordinary electronic, optical,
and chemical properties.21,22 Moreover, there are many reports
on composites containing SWCNTs and C60 clusters, which are
known to decorate the SWCNT sidewall through covalent or
noncovalent interaction.21 Although MWCNTs, SWCNTs, and
C60 have been widely investigated for coupling with semi-
conductor materials, studies on the photoactivity of the above-
College of Forestry, Beihua University, Jilin 132013, China. E-mail: bhsjy64@163.com;
Fax: +86 432 6460 8076; Tel: +86 156 9434 9717
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI:
10.1039/c7ra11056a
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854 | 53847

View Article Online
RSC Advances
Paper
mentioned novel C60-CNTs hybrid carbon materials coupled to study the composition and chemical states of the elements.
with bismuth-based oxides are still scarce, and the photo- The FT-IR spectra were recorded on an FTIR spectrometer
catalytic mechanism of the composite photocatalyst remains (America Perkin Elmer, Spectrum One) using the standard KBr
unclear.
disk method. UV-vis absorption spectra of the samples were
Herein, we report two novel C60-CNTs/bismuth-based oxide tested on a scan UV-vis spectrophotometer (Shimadzu, UV-
composite photocatalysts fabricated through sensitizing leaf- 2550) equipped with an integrating sphere using BaSO4 as the
like BiVO4 and sheet-like Bi2MoO6 with C60-CNTs hybrid reference sample. The surface areas were measured by the
carbon materials via a facile hydrothermal method for the rst nitrogen adsorption Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method
time. The photocatalytic performances of the composites were (BET/BJH surface area, 3H-2000PS1). The photoluminescence
examined by degrading rhodamine B (Rh B) under visible-light (PL) spectra of the photocatalysts were obtained using a F4500
irradiation (l > 420 nm). The experimental results showed that (Hitachi, Japan) photoluminescence detector with an excitation
the as-prepared C60-CNTs/bismuth-based oxide composites wavelength of 325 nm.
exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity. Moreover, the
possible photocatalytic mechanism of the composite materials
related to the band positions of the semiconductors have also
been discussed in detail.
2.3 Photocatalytic activities studies
The photocatalytic properties of the as-prepared samples were
evaluated using Rh B as a model compound. In the experi-
ments, the Rh B solution (0.01 mmol Lꢀ1, 100 mL) containing
0.02 g of photocatalyst was mixed in a pyrex reaction glass. The
reactivity experiments were carried out in air at room temper-
ature. A 300 W Xe lamp (l > 420 nm) with 100 mW cmꢀ2 illu-
mination intensity was employed to provide visible-light
irradiation. A 420 nm cut-off lter was inserted between the
lamp and the sample to lter out UV light (l < 420 nm). Prior to
visible-light illumination, the suspension was strongly stirred in
dark for 40 min. The solution was then exposed to visible-light
irradiation under magnetic stirring. At specic time intervals,
4 mL of the suspension was periodically collected and analyzed
aer centrifugation. The Rh B concentration was analyzed using
a UV-2550 spectrometer to record the intensity of the maximum
band at 552 nm in the UV-vis absorption spectra.
2. Experimental section
2.1 Preparation of photocatalysts
2.1.1 Preparation of C60-CNTs. All reagents for synthesis
and analysis were commercially available and used without
further treatments. C60-CNTs hybrids were prepared by using
the Zhang's method:21 50 mg of SWCNTs and 50 mg of C60 were
dispersed by ultrasonication in 100 mL toluene for 1 h, and then
stirred at room temperature for 12 h. Aer volatilization of
toluene, the resultant black powder was washed with ethanol
for several times and dried in vacuum at 80 ꢁC for 12 h to obtain
the C60-decorated SWCNTs (50 wt% C60-CNTs, denoted as C60
CNTs).
-
2.1.2 Preparation of
C60-CNTs/BiVO4 and C60-CNTs/
Bi2MoO6. The nanostructured carbon/bismuth-based oxide
nanocomposites were prepared by a hydrothermal method. For
example, in a typical synthetic process for nanostructured
carbon/BiVO4, 15 mg of C60-CNTs was dispersed in 15 mL water
by sonication, and Bi(NO3)3$5H2O (0.88 mmol) and NH4VO3
(0.88 mmol) were added to the mixture and stirred for addi-
tional 1 h at room temperature. The theoretical weight ratio of
2.4 Active species trapping experiments
To detect the active species during photocatalytic reactivity,
some sacricial agents such as 2-propanol (IPA), disodium
ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA-2Na), and 1,4-benzo-
quinone (BQ) were used as scavengers for hydroxyl radical
(cOH), hole (h+), and superoxide radical (O2cꢀ), respectively. The
method was similar to the former photocatalytic activity test
with the addition of 1 mmol of quencher in the presence of
Rh B.
C
60-CNTs to BiVO4 was 1 : 19 for the nanostructured carbon/
BiVO4 (2.5 wt% C60/2.5 wt% CNTs/BiVO4, denoted as C60-CNTs/
BiVO4). Aer carefully adjusting the pH value to 3 using 25 wt%
NH3$H2O solution, the resulting mixture was transferred into
a 20 mL Teon-lined stainless steel autoclave and kept at 150 ꢁC
for 24 h. The obtained product was collected by centrifugation,
washed with water and ethanol several times, and then dried at
3. Results and discussion
The XRD patterns of SWCNTs, C60, and C60-CNTs are shown in
Fig. 1a. In the diffraction pattern of SWCNTs, an apparent wide
peak at 2q ¼ ꢂ26ꢁ appeared, corresponding to the (002) plane.21
C60 exhibits diffraction peaks corresponding to (111), (220),
(311), and (222) planes at 2q ¼ 10.7ꢁ, 17.7ꢁ, 20.7ꢁ, and 21.7ꢁ,
which can be readily indexed to a face centered cubic (fcc)
ꢁ
80 C overnight. C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 was prepared via a similar
process.
2.2 Characterization of photocatalysts
X-ray diffraction (XRD) was carried out on a D/MAX 2500V structure (JCPDS no. 44-558).21 When the two compounds were
diffractometer (Rigaku, Japan) with monochromatized Cu Ka coupled, the main characteristic diffraction peaks of SWCNTs
radiation, l ¼ 0.154 18 nm, in the 2q range of 10 to 70ꢁ. The and C60 exhibited no obvious change, indicating that C60 clus-
morphologies and microstructures of the products were char- ters in C60-CNTs can form an fcc crystallite. Fig. 1b displays the
acterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM, JEM- XRD patterns of the bare Bi2MoO6 and C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6
2100F). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, VGScientic) composite. All the diffraction peaks in the pattern of Bi2MoO6
using 300 W Al Ka radiation as the excitation source was applied can be indexed to the specic crystal planes of the Bi2MoO6
53848 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017

View Article Online
Paper
RSC Advances
Fig. 1 XRD patterns of SWCNTs, C60 and C60-CNTs (a), Bi2MoO6 and C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 (b), and BiVO4 and C60-CNTs/BiVO4 (c).
phase (JCPDS no. 21-0102). Besides the peaks of Bi2MoO6, the as 0.38 nm (Fig. 2f), which is consistent with the interplanar
diffraction peaks of C60 in the pattern of C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 can spacing of the Bi2MoO6 (111) plane.
be observed, indicating the coexistence of C60. Doping with
FTIR spectroscopy was applied to distinguish the micro-
SWCNTs did not signicantly change the structure of Bi2MoO6. structures of nanostructured carbons and their composites.
It was reported that SWCNTs show a weak but characteristic Fig. 3a shows the FTIR spectra of C60, CNTs, C60-CNTs, C60-
diffraction peak at 26.0ꢁ. However, this peak was not apparent CNTs/Bi2MoO6, and C60-CNTs/BiVO4. The bands at 1182, 1429,
in the patterns of the as-prepared composites, which could be and 1630 cmꢀ1 are attributed to the internal modes of the C60
attributed to the small amount of SWCNTs in the composites. molecule.25 It can be observed that both C60-CNTs/BiVO4 and
In the C60-CNTs/BiVO4 composite, the diffraction peaks of
BiVO4 (JCPDS no. 14-0688) and C60 were detected (Fig. 1c), bands for C60 molecule, showing the existence of C60-CNTs. The
suggesting the existence of C60 and BiVO4 phases. successful loading of C60-CNTs was also illustrated by XPS.
Fig. 2 displays the microstructures of C60-CNTs/BiVO4 and C60- Fig. 3b displays the deconvolution of the C 1s peaks of C60
C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 nanocomposites reveal the characteristic
-
CNTs/Bi2MoO6. Usually, the produced SWCNTs have a tendency CNTs, C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6, and C60-CNTs/BiVO4. For C60-CNTs,
to form tight bundles.23,24 C60-CNTs are also made of bundles of the main peak at 282.3 eV was assigned to the sp2-hybridized
entangled SWCNTs. As shown in Fig. 2a, the C60-CNTs are inti- carbon of CNTs, which can be ascribed to the C–C bond of the
mately bound to the leaf-like BiVO4 nanostructure surfaces. sp2-hybridized carbon in the graphene sheet. In case of C60-
However, some single or double SWCNTs with an average CNTs/Bi2MoO6 and C60-CNTs/BiVO4, the binding energy of C 1s
diameter of ꢂ10 nm can still be observed (Fig. 2b). C60 molecules shied by about 0.2 and 0.5 eV, respectively, toward higher
with a diameter of ca. 0.7 nm is too small to be directly resolved binding energies. A similar phenomenon was observed for Bi 4f
by HRTEM observation, which is similar to the reported work.21 (Fig. 3c). This implied the successful incorporation of C60-CNTs
The lattice fringe pattern of BiVO4 was measured as 0.224 nm into Bi2MoO6 or BiVO4. The spin-orbit of Bi 4f in Bi2MoO6 and
(Fig. 2c), consistent with the interplanar spacing of the BiVO4 BiVO4 could be well deconvoluted as two peaks at around 159
(121) plane. A similar phenomenon occurred in the C60-CNTs/ and 164 eV, which correspond to the Bi 4f7/2 and Bi 4f5/2 orbits
Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite. As can be seen in Fig. 2d and e the C60- of Bi3+, respectively.
CNTs are intimately bound to the surfaces of the Bi2MoO6
Fig. 4a shows the UV-vis absorption spectra of bare Bi2MoO6,
nanosheets. The lattice fringe pattern of Bi2MoO6 was measured BiVO4, C60-CNTs, and C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6, and C60-CNTs/BiVO4
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854 | 53849

View Article Online
RSC Advances
Paper
Fig. 2 TEM images of as-prepared samples: (a, b) C60-CNTs/BiVO4, (c) HRTEM image of C60-CNTs/BiVO4, (d, e) C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6, (f) HRTEM
image of C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6.
nanocomposites. All the samples exhibit the typical absorptions Here, EVB is the valence band edge potential, ECB is the
with an intense transition in the visible region. In addition, the conduction band edge potential, X is the electronegativity of the
introduction of nanostructured carbons (C60-CNTs) into the semiconductor, which is the geometric mean of the electro-
Bi2MoO6 or BiVO4 leads to an increase in absorption in the negativity of the constituent atoms, Ee is the energy of free
visible-light region, indicating an intense electronic interaction electrons on the hydrogen scale (about 4.5 eV), and Eg is the
between the bismuth-based oxide and nanostructured carbon, band gap energy of the semiconductor. Based on the above
when C60-CNTs were used as the carbon source.21
formulas, the VB potential and CB potential of BiVO4 were
In general, for a crystalline semiconductor, the optical calculated as 2.828 eV and 0.488 eV, respectively, whereas the
absorption band edge can be estimated according to the CB and VB edge potentials of Bi2MoO6 were ꢀ0.26 eV and
formula, ahv ¼ A(hv ꢀ Eg)n/2, where a, v, Eg, and A are the 2.27 eV, respectively.
absorption coefficient, light frequency, band-gap energy, and
The photocatalytic activities of the samples were evaluated
a constant, respectively. Among these parameters, n is deter- by photocatalytic degradation of a Rh B solution under visible
mined by the type of optical transition in a semiconductor. The light. Adsorption equilibrium was reached for all the examined
value of n is 1 for direct transition and 4 for indirect transition. photocatalysts aer stirring for 40 min in dark (Fig. S1†). As can
For Bi2MoO6 or BiVO4, the value of n is 1 for direct transition, be seen in Fig. 5a, when the solution is irradiated with visible
thus, the band gaps were estimated as about 2.34 eV for BiVO4 light for 30 min in the absence of any catalyst, little change in
and 2.53 eV for Bi2MoO6, as shown in Fig. 4b. In addition, the Rh B concentration is observed, which is in agreement with
potentials of the valence band (VB) and conduction band (CB) previous reports.26,27 This indicates that the self-
for BiVO4 can be calculated according to the two formulas photodegradation of Rh B is negligible. As shown in Fig. 5a,
which are proposed by Butler and Ginley:
pure Bi2MoO6 and BiVO4 exhibited generally low photocatalytic
activities, with only 43.7% and 74.0% Rh B degradation,
respectively, aer visible-light irradiation for 30 min. This low
performance is possibly due to the fast recombination of photo-
induced electrons and holes in the single semiconductor. The
results indicate that the photocatalytic activity of C60-CNTs/
EVB ¼ X ꢀ Ee + 0.5Eg
(1)
(2)
ECB ¼ EVB ꢀ Eg
53850 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017

View Article Online
Paper
RSC Advances
Fig. 3 (a) FTIR of as-prepared samples. XPS spectra of as-obtained samples: (b) C 1s, (c) Bi 4f.
bismuth-based oxide nanocomposites toward Rh B is much areas of the samples were measured by N2 adsorption–desorp-
higher than that of either pure Bi2MoO6 or BiVO4. The intro- tion isotherms. Fig. 5b shows the N2 adsorption–desorption
duction of C60-CNTs to bismuth-based oxides resulted in isotherms at 77 K. The obtained BET specic surface areas for
signicant improvement in the photocatalytic performances of BiVO4, Bi2MoO6, C60-CNTs, C60-CNTs/BiVO4, and C60-CNTs/
Bi2MoO6 and BiVO4. Aer 30 min of visible-light irradiation, the Bi2MoO6 samples are 20.913, 44.202, 188.426, 146.071, and
photocatalytic degradation percentages of Rh B were about 179.465 m2 gꢀ1, respectively (Table 1). It can be observed that
96.1% and 88.4% for C60-CNTs/BiVO4 and C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 the BET specic areas increased aer the loading of C60-CNTs,
composites, respectively. This is because the efficient hetero- which can facilitate more efficient contact of the composite
junction interface between two or three components can samples with organic contaminants, leading to the enhance-
restrain the recombination of photo-induced charges effec- ment of photocatalytic efficiency.32,33 Because a renewable
tively.28,29 The C60-CNTs coating can improve the visible-light catalyst is another important criterion for photocatalytic
absorption efficiency (Fig. 4), which is benecial for the application,34 the stabilities of C60-CNT/Bi2MoO6 and C60-CNTs/
ternary composite in photolyzing Rh B.30,31 Further, the surface BiVO4 composites were investigated by a recycling test (Fig. 5c).
Fig. 4 (a) UV-vis absorption spectra of the as-obtained samples. (b) Plots of (ahv)2 versus photon energy (hn) for the band gap energies of BiVO4
and Bi2MoO6.
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854 | 53851

View Article Online
RSC Advances
Paper
Fig. 5 (a) Photodegradation efficiencies of Rh B as a function of irradiation time for different photocatalysts. (b) N2 adsorption–desorption
isotherm curves of the as-prepared samples. (c) Cycling runs for photocatalytic degradation of Rh B over the ternary nanocomposites under
visible-light irradiation. (d) Trapping experiment of active species during photocatalytic degradation of Rh B over C60CNTs/bismuth-based oxide
nanocomposites under visible-light irradiation.
Aer four cycles, there was no signicant loss of activity, which
indicated that the composite photocatalysts were stable during Bi2MoO6 nanocomposite is illustrated in Fig. 6. First, the large
the photocatalytic test. specic surface areas of the ternary nanocomposite and its
The possible photocatalytic mechanism of the C60-CNTs/
To further probe the underlying mechanism of the ternary enhanced adsorption ability toward the contaminants
nanocomposites, different scavengers for the various active contribute to the photocatalytic process. Particularly, the
species were added into the reaction system. In particular, IPA, loading of C60-CNTs promotes the visible-light absorption of
BQ, and EDTA-2Na were used to capture cOH, cO2ꢀ, and h+, Bi2MoO6, which enables photoexcitation of more electrons from
respectively. As shown in Fig. 5d, the photocatalytic perfor- the VB to the CB.21 Further, the small C60 molecules can serve as
mance of C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 toward Rh B degradation was an efficient electron reservoir to capture the photogenerated
clearly inhibited by the addition of EDTA-2Na and BQ. Similar electrons, thus hindering the recombination of electron–hole
results were observed with the trapping of active species during carriers.22 Meanwhile, CNTs can also help to suppress the
the photocatalytic degradation of Rh B over C60-CNTs/BiVO4. charge recombination by capturing the photogenerated elec-
These results indicate that cO2ꢀ and h+ play critical roles in the trons owing to their excellent electron conductivity and
photocatalytic degradation of Rh B for the ternary composites. mobility.23 On the other hand, owing to the formation of
Table 1 BET specific surface area of the as-prepared samples
BET specic surface
BET specic surface
Photocatalysts
area (m2 gꢀ1
)
Photocatalysts
area (m2 gꢀ1
)
BiVO4
Bi2MoO6
C60/CNTs
20.913
44.202
188.426
C60-CNTs/BiVO4
C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6
146.071
179.465
53852 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017

View Article Online
Paper
RSC Advances
Fig. 6 Schematic diagram of the separation and transfer of photogenerated charges in the C60-CNTs/Bi2MoO6 composite photocatalyst under
visible-light irradiation.
heterojunctions between C60-CNTs and Bi2MoO6 and their
intimate interfacial interaction, photogenerated electrons
References
can efficiently transfer to C60 and CNTs, thus showing
enhanced separation efficiency for the photogenerated holes–
electrons pairs. In this way, the excited electrons participate
in the reduction of O2 to cO2ꢀ. Subsequently, the cO2ꢀ and
holes on the valence band of Bi2MoO6 oxidize the Rh B to CO2
and H2O.
1 B. Qiu, M. Xing and J. Zhang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136,
5852–5855.
2 P. P. Gai, R. B. Song, C. Zhu, Y. S. Ji, Y. Chen, J. R. Zhang and
J. J. Zhu, Chem. Commun., 2015, 51, 14735–14738.
3 W. B. Li, C. Feng, S. Y. Dai, J. G. Yue, F. X. Hua and H. Hou,
Appl. Catal., B, 2015, 168, 465–471.
4 J. N. Hui, G. Zhang, C. S. Ni and J. T. S. Irvine, Chem.
Commun., 2017, 53, 10038–10041.
5 R. C. Pawar and C. S. Lee, Appl. Catal., B, 2014, 144, 57–65.
6 K. A. Tsai and Y. J. Hsu, Appl. Catal., B, 2015, 164, 271–278.
7 Z. F. Huang, L. Pan, J. J. Zou, X. W. Zhang and L. Wang,
Nanoscale, 2014, 6, 14044–14063.
4. Conclusions
In this study, C60-decorated SWCNTs (C60-CNTs) were
prepared by a solution method. Thereaer, novel nano-
structured carbon/bismuth-based oxide nanocomposites were
successfully synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method
with nanostructured carbons. These nanostructured carbon/
bismuth-based oxide nanocomposites are benecial for
improving the photocatalytic efficiency. The enhanced
performance is due to the extended absorption in the visible-
light region resulting from C60-CNTs loading, high specic
surface area, and efficient separation of electron–hole pairs by
8 D. F. Hou, X. L. Hu, P. Hu, W. Zhang, M. F. Zhang and
Y. H. Huang, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 9764–9772.
9 T. T. Li, X. L. Hu, C. C. Liu, C. M. Tang, X. K. Wang and
S. L. Luo, J. Mol. Catal. A: Chem., 2016, 425, 124–135.
10 N. Liang, M. Wang, L. Jin, S. S. Huang, W. L. Chen, M. Xu,
Q. Q. He, J. T. Zai, N. H. Fang and X. F. Qian, ACS Appl.
Mater. Interfaces, 2014, 6, 11698–11705.
11 J. C. Wang, H. C. Yao, Z. Y. Fan, L. Zhang, J. S. Wang,
S. Q. Zang and Z. J. Li, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2016, 8,
3765–3775.
12 S. Yuan, Y. Zhao, W. B. Chen, C. Wu, X. Y. Wang, L. N. Zhang
and Q. Wang, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2017, 9, 21781–
21790.
the ternary composite system. This study suggests that the C60
-
CNTs, as a new carbon nanostructured material, can be
employed as an effective co-catalyst for photocatalytic
application.
Conflicts of interest
13 L. Zhou, Y. Yang, J. Zhang and P. M. Rao, ACS Appl. Mater.
Interfaces, 2017, 9, 11356–11362.
There are no conicts to declare.
´
14 T. Saison, N. Chemin, C. Chaneac, O. Durupthy, L. Mariey,
´
´
F. Mauge, V. Brezova and J. P. Jolivet, J. Phys. Chem. C,
2015, 119, 12967–12977.
Acknowledgements
15 Y. C. Hao, X. L. Dong, S. R. Zhai, X. Y. Wang, H. C. Ma and
X. F. Zhang, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 35709–35718.
16 S. J. Li, X. F. Shen, J. S. Liu and L. S. Zhang, Environ. Sci.:
Nano, 2017, 4, 1155–1167.
This work was supported by the Project of State Forestry
Administration of China (201504502), the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (21407059) and the Open Subject
of the State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization
(RERU2017011).
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017
RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854 | 53853

View Article Online
RSC Advances
Paper
17 S. N. Lou, J. Scott, A. Iwase, R. Amal and Y. H. Ng, J. Mater. 26 H. P. Li, J. Y. Liu, W. G. Hou, N. Du, R. J. Zhang and X. T. Tao,
Chem. A, 2016, 4, 6964–6971. Appl. Catal., B, 2014, 160–161, 89.
18 T. Yan, Q. Yan, X. D. Wang, H. Y. Liu, M. M. Li, S. X. Lu, 27 H. Q. Pan, X. K. Li, Z. J. Zhuang and C. Zhang, J. Mol. Catal. A:
W. G. Xu and M. Sun, Dalton Trans., 2015, 44, 1601–1611. Chem., 2011, 345, 90.
19 J. S. Cai, J. Y. Huang and Y. K. Lai, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2017, 5, 28 S. Juntrapirom, D. Tantraviwat, S. Suntalelat, O. Thongsook,
16412–16421.
S. Phanichphant and B. Inceesungvorn, J. Colloid Interface
Sci., 2017, 504, 711–720.
29 S. J. Li, S. W. Hu, K. B. Xu, W. Jiang, Y. Liu and Z. Leng, J.
Colloid Interface Sci., 2017, 504, 561–569.
30 Y. L. Qi, Y. F. Zheng, H. Y. Yin and X. C. Song, J. Alloys
Compd., 2017, 712, 535–542.
31 Q. Z. Luo, X. L. Yang, X. X. Zhao, D. S. Wang, R. Yin, X. Y. Li
and J. An, Appl. Catal., B, 2017, 204, 304–315.
32 Y. R. Zhao, J. Z. Ma, J. L. Liu and Y. Bao, Colloids Surf., A,
2017, 518, 57–63.
20 J. L. Li, X. J. Liu, X. Q. Piao, Z. Sun and L. K. Pan, RSC Adv.,
2015, 5, 16592–16597.
21 B. Chai, T. Y. Peng, X. H. Zhang, J. Mao, K. Li and
X. G. Zhang, Dalton Trans., 2013, 42, 3402–3409.
22 B. Chai, X. Liao, F. Song and H. Zhou, Dalton Trans., 2014,
43, 982–989.
23 L. F. Yue, S. F. Wang, G. Q. Shan, W. Wu, L. W. Qiang and
L. Y. Zhu, Appl. Catal., B, 2015, 176–177, 11–19.
24 S. Reddy, R. Du, L. X. Kang, N. N. Mao and J. Zhang, Appl.
Catal., B, 2016, 194, 16–21.
25 J. G. Yu, T. T. Ma, G. Liu and B. Cheng, Dalton Trans., 2011,
40, 6635–6644.
33 Y. Q. Yang, W. K. Zhang, R. X. Liu, J. M. Cui and C. Deng, Sep.
Purif. Technol., 2018, 190, 278–287.
34 Y. F. Zhang, M. Park, H. Y. Kim and S. J. Park, J. Alloys
Compd., 2016, 686, 106–114.
53854 | RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 53847–53854
This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2017