Fabrication of sphere-like Bi2MoO6/ZnO composite catalyst with strong photocatalytic behavior for the detoxification of harmful organic dyes

In the present work, a novel sphere-like Bi2MoO6/ZnO composite catalyst was synthesized via solvothermal method. The physicochemical properties of synthesized catalysts were characterized by various instrumental techniques. The photocatalytic efficiency of synthesized catalysts was determined towards the degradation of dyes such as methyl orange (MO), rhodamine B (RhB) and methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation, which revealed that the synthesized Bi2MoO6/ZnO catalyst exhibited better efficiency (93% of MO, 96% of RhB and 91% of MB degradation) compared to bare catalysts (Bi2MoO6 & ZnO). The photocatalytic degradation reaction followed pseudo-first order kinetics with rate constant values of 0.0106, 0.0152 and 0.0114 min−1 in the degradation of MO, RhB and MB respectively which is 1.7, 2.2 and 1.9 times more than Bi2MoO6 and 4.6, 4.9 and 4.3 times more than ZnO. Bi2MoO6/ZnO composite catalyst retained stable performance even after four consecutive runs. Based on the results a possible photocatalytic mechanism for its superior photocatalytic efficiency was proposed. [Display omitted] •A novel sphere-like Bi2MoO6/ZnO composite was prepared by solvothermal method.•Compared to bare catalysts synthesized sphere-like Bi2MoO6/ZnO exhibited the superior performance.•Sphere-like Bi2MoO6/ZnO retains its stability even after four runs.•A possible photocatalytic mechanism for superior activity has been illustrated.