The accumulation of organic pollutants in surface water, groundwater, and even drinking water has raised as a serious issue in recent decades. Semiconductor-based photocatalysis has emerged as a green and sustainable approach to find remediate solutions for environmental and energy issues. However, the fast recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers reduces the photocatalytic efficiency of photocatalysts. In this study, a hydrothermal synthesis method is proposed for preparing four types of p-n heterojunctions, BiVO4/BiOX (X = F, Cl, Br, I). BiVO4 is an n-type semiconductor and BiOX is a p-type semiconductor. Photocatalytic activity tests showed that the BiVO4/BiOF has the best photocatalytic performance under visible light, and photoluminescence spectra confirmed the lowest recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers for BiVO4/BiOF as compared with others. (C) 2019 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.