Construction and visible-light-photocatalysis of a novel ternary heterostructure BiOI/(001)TiO₂/Ti₃C₂

Constructing effective heterojunctions between semiconductors and appropriate cocatalysts and exposing highly active crystal facets have been considered an effective approach to obtain efficient photocatalysts. Herein, a novel BiOI/(001)TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ (BTT) hybrid was for the first time synthesized by in situ growing (001)TiO₂ nanosheets on a 2D MXene nanomaterial (Ti₃C₂) and subsequent deposition of flower-like nanoflake BiOI on the obtained (001)TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ hybrid. The BTT hybrid exhibited excellent photocatalytic performance for degradation of Rhodamine B under visible light irradiation, with the highest degradation rate being 6.26, 1.72, and 1.35 times of that of a pure BiOI, BiOI/TiO₂ hybrid, and BiOI/Ti₃C₂ hybrid, respectively. The staggeringly enhanced photoactivity of BTT was attributed to the separation of photogenerated carriers by a multiple charge transfer channels because of the formed p-n and Schottky double junctions. This study demonstrates that (001)TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ obtained by simple hydrothermal oxidation of Ti₃C₂ can be a good cocatalyst for fabricating excellent visible-light-driven photocatalyst.