Green synthesis of flower-like Bi 2 WO 6 microspheres as a visible-light-driven photocatalyst

Three dimensional highly hierarchical flower-like Bi2WO6 microspheres, self aggregated from nanoplates, have been fabricated in a green hydrothermal way at low temperature, without using any template or setting a certain pH value in solution. We investigated the formation mechanism and also studied the visible-light-driven photocatalytic activities of the as obtained flower-like Bi2WO6 microspheres, which showed excellent performance for the degradation of an organic dye under visible light irradiation. Such a cost effective way to obtain well-organized flower-like Bi2WO6 microspheres has potential applications in water treatment by full use of solar light.