Hydrothermal synthesis of hierarchical rose-like Bi2WO6 microspheres with high photocatalytic activities under visible-light irradiation

Hierarchical rose-like Bi2WO6 photocatalyst was successfully synthesized through a simple hydrothermal route using thiourea and acetic acid as complexing agents. The as-synthesized product was determined as pure orthorhombic Bi2WO6 based on the results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The photocatalyst had an average diameter of 2–3 μm and it was constructed by many nanoflakes. The surfaces of these nanoflakes were coarse and had many nanocrystals on them. The hierarchical rose-like structure was formed through a typical hierarchical assembly process with the synergistic action of acetic acid and thiourea. The photocatalyst showed excellent visible-light-driven photocatalytic performance, it could decompose rhodamine B(RhB) within 50 min. This excellent performance resulted from its special microstructure and the relatively large surface area.