Self-assembly of carbon nanotube/graphitic-like flake/BiOBr nanocomposite with 1D/2D/3D heterojunctions for enhanced photocatalytic activity

Weiwei Tie; Zhaoyu Du; Hongwei Yue; Surjya Sarathi Bhattacharyya; Zhi Zheng; Weiwei He; Seung Hee Lee

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.088

Self-assembly of carbon nanotube/graphitic-like flake/BiOBr nanocomposite with 1D/2D/3D heterojunctions for enhanced photocatalytic activity

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Nov 1:579:862-871. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.088. Epub 2020 Jun 27.

Authors

Weiwei Tie¹, Zhaoyu Du¹, Hongwei Yue¹, Surjya Sarathi Bhattacharyya², Zhi Zheng¹, Weiwei He³, Seung Hee Lee⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province, College of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China; Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Nanomaterials for Energy and Catalysis, Xuchang University, Xuchang, Henan 461000, China.
² Asutosh College, 92, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee Road. Kolkata 700 026, West Bengal, India.
³ Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province, College of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China; Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Nanomaterials for Energy and Catalysis, Xuchang University, Xuchang, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: heweiweixcu@gmail.com.
⁴ Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Nanomaterials for Energy and Catalysis, Xuchang University, Xuchang, Henan 461000, China; Applied Materials Institute for BIN Convergence, Department of BIN Convergence Technology and Department of Polymer Nano-Science and Technology, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Jeonbuk 54896, South Korea. Electronic address: lsh1@jbnu.ac.kr.

PMID: 32679383
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.06.088

Abstract

A self-assembled nanocomposite of lamellar BiOBr covalently bonded with conductive network of dispersive one-dimensional carbon nanotubes (1D CNT) and two-dimensional reduced graphitic-like flakes (2D GF) had been in situ constructed using one-pot facile solvothermal technique. Through self-assembly, BiOBr/CNT/GF (BiOBr/CG) displayed three-dimensional architectures in which a strong interfacial contact interaction and covalent banding between BiOBr nanostructures and CNT/GF network appeared. Furthermore, visible-light-driven catalytic activity of BiOBr/CG for RhB dye degradation was superior to that of pure BiOBr or BiOBr/C. Interestingly, the photodegradation activity of the BiOBr/CG nanocomposite could be improved further by subsequent facile annealing treatment, in which the annealed BiOBr/CG-DS had degraded almost 97.9% of RhB dye within only 100 min of visible-light irradiation. Moreover, analysis of the photodegradation mechanism revealed that the repression of electron-hole recombination in the nanocomposites, with sufficient covalent interfacial contact with CNT/GF as effective electron collecting and transferring system, were responsible for the outstanding photocatalytic performance. This effect, in turn, led to the continuous generation of O²- and OH reactive oxygen species for the degradation of RhB dye, which was verified by active species trapping and ESR spectra.

Keywords: BiOBr; Carbon nanotubes; Photocatalytic degradation; Reduced graphitic oxide; Self-assembly.