Fabrication of fibrous BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 heterojunction and synergetic enhancement of photocatalytic activity towards pollutant degradation

A novel fibrous BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 heterojunction is facilely constructed by simple electrospinning and hydrothermal processes. Bi2S3 was formed concurrently along with the hydrothermal synthesis of MoS2 on to the porous structure of BiVO4 fibers. The BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 (BBM) heterojunction is organized with MoS2 nanosheets of several layers in thickness encapsulating both on the Bi2S3 nanorod around 40 ​nm in diameter and fibrous BiVO4 template. The BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 heterojunction shows significant enhancement of visible light absorption in the region of 500–800 ​nm and photocurrent of 3 times higher than that of pure BiVO4. By adjusting the precursor concentration of MoS2, the optimized BBM-2 sample presents 4.9 and 9.5 times higher of the photodegradation efficiency and apparent reaction rate constant respectively, than that of pure BiVO4 fibers after 120 ​min under visible light irradiation. The present work will provide a new strategy to the design of Bi-contained nanofibrous heterojunctions with high photocatalytic activity for the applications in energy storage and conversion. [Display omitted] •BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 ​heterojunctions are prepared by one-step hydrothermal growth of MoS2 ​on BiVO4 ​nanofibers.•BiVO4/Bi2S3/MoS2 ​fibers show significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity towards decomposing RhB.•The synthetic method is simple and efficient for preparing various Bi-contained composite photocatalysts.