Graphene oxide mediated co-generation of C-doping and oxygen defects in Bi2WO6 nanosheets: a combined DRIFTS and DFT investigation

Minglu Sun; Xing'an Dong; Ben Lei; Jieyuan Li; Peng Chen; Yuxin Zhang; Fan Dong

doi:10.1039/c9nr06874k

Graphene oxide mediated co-generation of C-doping and oxygen defects in Bi₂WO₆ nanosheets: a combined DRIFTS and DFT investigation

Nanoscale. 2019 Nov 21;11(43):20562-20570. doi: 10.1039/c9nr06874k. Epub 2019 Oct 29.

Authors

Minglu Sun¹, Xing'an Dong¹, Ben Lei¹, Jieyuan Li², Peng Chen¹, Yuxin Zhang³, Fan Dong¹

Affiliations

¹ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Catalysis and New Environmental Materials, College of Environment and Resources, Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing 400067, China. dfctbu@126.com and Research Center for Environmental Science & Technology, Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China.
² Research Center for Environmental Science & Technology, Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China and College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.

PMID: 31661108
DOI: 10.1039/c9nr06874k

Abstract

In order to efficiently control air pollutants using photocatalytic technology, the co-generation of C-doping and oxygen vacancies (OVs) in Bi₂WO₆ (BWO) nanosheets was achieved by a graphene oxide (GO)-mediated hydrothermal method. The photocatalytic performance was highly improved with the synergistic effects of C-doping and OVs. The experimental characterization and DFT calculations were closely combined to reveal that the C element could serve as both an electron acceptor and channel for charge transfer to promote charge separation. Meanwhile, the OVs could induce the formation of a defect level in the band gap which increases the production of ˙OH as the primary reactive species by introducing more light-generated holes into the valence band. Meanwhile, the OVs could enhance the generation of ˙O₂^- species via the promotion of O₂ adsorption and activation on the catalyst surface. Moreover, the reaction intermediates were monitored and the mechanism of photocatalytic NO oxidation was proposed based on in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The design concept of photocatalyst modification with C-doping and OVs could offer a novel strategy to enhance the performance for environmental applications.