Oxygen vacancy-rich 2D/0D BiO1-XBr/AgBr Z-scheme photocatalysts for efficient visible light driven degradation of tetracycline

Haochun Zhang; Wenli Zhao; Haifeng Shi

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac15c8

Oxygen vacancy-rich 2D/0D BiO_1-XBr/AgBr Z-scheme photocatalysts for efficient visible light driven degradation of tetracycline

Nanotechnology. 2021 Aug 4;32(43). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac15c8.

Authors

Haochun Zhang¹, Wenli Zhao¹, Haifeng Shi^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People's Republic of China.
² Jiangsu Provincial Research Center of Light Industrial Optoelectronic Engineering and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People's Republic of China.
³ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34280904
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac15c8

Abstract

Semiconductor-based photocatalytic technology, as a green and promising avenue in response to the abuse of antibiotic pollution and human health crisis, is restricted by the limited photo-absorption and fast recombination of photogenerated carriers. In this paper, all these challenges were settled by AgBr particles incorporated into oxygen-deficient BiOBr nanosheets, forming novel oxygen vacancy (OV)-rich 2D/0D Z-scheme heterojunctions. Z-scheme photocatalytic system has an effective separation rate of photogenerated carriers and an ability to maintain original redox capacity. Moreover, introducing OVs in the Z-scheme can not only improve the visible light absorption ability, but also serve as recombination centers, thus promoting the separation of electrons and holes. Notably, the photocatalytic activity of 2D/0D BiO_1-XBr/AgBr (2:1) was significantly improved under the irradiation of visible light, removing 81% of tetracycline after 25 min, which was about 2.62 times and 2.03 times as high as those of BiO_1-XBr and AgBr, respectively. In addition, the 2D/0D BiO_1-XBr/AgBr (2:1) indicated high photocatalytic stability and reusability, and its tetracycline degradation efficiency remained stable after five cycles. In summary, this work suggests that the photocatalysts have a great potential to remove TC and provides a possible strategy for purifying water.

Keywords: 2D/0D photocatalyst; AgBr; BiO1−XBr; Z-scheme; oxygen vacancy.