The construction of ternary composite materials is an excellent approach for achieving effective charge separation and enhanced photocatalytic performance. In this study, a ternary Bi₂MoO₆-rGO-ZnO nanocomposite photocatalyst was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method and characterized by various surface analytical optical techniques. Field emission scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy analyses revealed that rice-like structured Bi₂MoO₆ decorated on ZnO nanorods were dispersed in reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets. The photocatalytic efficiency of this nanocomposite was studied by the reduction of hexavalent Cr(VI) under visible-light illumination. The ternary catalyst had a 95.4% reduction of Cr(VI) in 70 min, which is greater than that of Bi₂MoO_6, and ZnO-Bi₂MoO₆ owing to the maximum charge separation and excellent electron transport between ZnO and Bi₂MoO₆ catalyst on the rGO. The prepared ternary catalyst exhibited low photoluminescence and maximum photocurrent density, indicating the suppression of photon-induced electron–hole recombination and high charge separation. The ternary Bi₂MoO₆-rGO-ZnO catalyst was stable for up to three consecutive cycles of Cr(VI) reduction. A feasible photocatalytic reduction mechanism using the prepared ternary composite material was proposed.

三元复合材料的构造是实现有效电荷分离和增强光催化性能的极佳方法。本研究采用简单的水热法制备了Bi ₂ MoO ₆ -rGO-ZnO三元纳米复合光催化剂，并通过各种表面分析光学技术对其进行了表征。场发射扫描电子显微镜和高分辨率透射电子显微镜分析表明，水稻样结构的Bi ₂ MoO ₆在ZnO纳米棒上装饰的颜料分散在还原的氧化石墨烯（rGO）片中。通过在可见光照射下还原六价Cr（VI）来研究该纳米复合材料的光催化效率。三元催化剂在70 分钟内还原了Cr（VI）的95.4％，这比Bi ₂ MoO ₆和ZnO-Bi ₂ MoO _6的还原要大，这归因于最大的电荷分离和ZnO和Bi ₂之间的出色电子传输rGO上的MoO ₆催化剂。制备的三元催化剂显示出低的光致发光和最大的光电流密度，表明抑制了光子诱导的电子-空穴复合和高电荷分离。三元Bi ₂MoO ₆ -rGO-ZnO催化剂可在多达三个连续的Cr（VI）还原循环中保持稳定。提出了一种可行的三元复合材料光催化还原机理。