Improving UV Light Photocatalytic Activity of WO3 by Doping with Boron and Compounding with Polypyrrole

Abstract

Tungsten oxide (WO3) and boron-doped WO3 (WO3-B) nanoparticles were synthesized using the co-precipitation technique. In addition, as-prepared photocatalysts were compounded with a conducting polymer, polypyrrole (PPy), to prepare PPy/WO3 and PPy/WO3-B composites. The photocatalytic activity of pure WO3, WO3-B, and the PPy composites for decomposing an organic dye, methylene blue, was compared. Doping with boron atoms and/or compounding with polypyrrole improved the photocatalytic performance of WO3, which was probed by performing UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The boron doping improved the photocatalytic performance of the WO3 nanoparticles, which was ascribed to reducing the recombination rate of the photoinduced charge carriers and the increase in the number of photogenerated holes on WO3 upon UV light irradiation. Compounding WO3 with polypyrrole enhanced the photocatalytic activity, which was also assigned to the decrease in the recombination rate of the photoexcited charge carriers.