A practical visible-light-driven Bi₂WO₆ nanofibrous mat prepared by electrospinning

An electrospinning technique was first developed to fabricate Bi ₂WO₆ nanofibrous mat with excellent photoactivity under visible light. The nanofibers are made of single-crystalline Bi ₂WO₆ nanoparticles about 100 nm in size. The diameters of the nanofibers can be controlled by simply tuning the weight ratio of Bi ₂WO₆ to poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) (R). With the value of R increasing, the average diameter of the nanofibers was decreased. In addition to the favorable recycling characteristics, the mat with R = 2 exhibits higher photocatalytic activity in the decomposition of acetaldehyde (CH ₃CHO) and aqueous ammonia than that of the sample prepared by solid-state reaction (SSR) and the nanoparticles. Such an advantageous electrospinning route, which not only brings effective improvement in the photocatalytic activity of catalysts but also provides a solution to the separation problem for conventional catalysts that are small in size, is worth considering for the preparation of other photocatalysts.