2D/2D Biochar/Bi2WO6 Hybrid Nanosheets with Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Activities for Organic Pollutants Degradation

Xiaolin Li; Yanan Qu; Junjie Xu; Junhui Liang; Huayu Chen; Da Chen; Liqun Bai

doi:10.1021/acsomega.3c01591

2D/2D Biochar/Bi₂WO₆ Hybrid Nanosheets with Enhanced Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Activities for Organic Pollutants Degradation

ACS Omega. 2023 Jul 21;8(30):26882-26894. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c01591. eCollection 2023 Aug 1.

Authors

Xiaolin Li¹, Yanan Qu¹, Junjie Xu¹, Junhui Liang², Huayu Chen², Da Chen², Liqun Bai¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province 311300, China.
² College of Materials and Chemistry, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China.

Abstract

In this work, a novel two-dimensional/two-dimensional (2D/2D) hybrid photocatalyst consisting of Bi₂WO₆ (BWO) nanosheets and cotton fibers biochar (CFB) nanosheets was successfully prepared via a facile hydrothermal process. The as-prepared photocatalysts were characterized by a variety of techniques, including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. It was revealed that amorphous CFB nanosheets were uniformly immobilized on the surface of crystalline BWO nanosheets, and an intimate contact between CFB and BWO was constructed. The photocatalytic activities of the prepared BWO and CFB-BWO photocatalysts were evaluated by photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC-HCl) in aqueous solutions under visible-light irradiation. Compared to the pristine BWO, the CFB-BWO composite photocatalysts exhibited significant enhancement in photocatalytic activities. Among all CFB-BWO samples, the 9CFB-BWO sample with the CFB mass ratio of 9% exhibited optimal photocatalytic activities for RhB or TC-HCl degradation, which was ca. 1.8 times or 2.4 times that of the pristine BWO, respectively. The improvement in photocatalytic activities of the CFB-BWO photocatalysts could be ascribed to the enhanced migration and separation of photogenerated charge carriers due to the formation of a 2D/2D interfacial heterostructure between CFB and BWO. Meanwhile, the possible mechanism of CFB-BWO for enhanced photocatalytic performance was also discussed. This work may provide a new approach to designing and developing novel BWO-based photocatalysts for the highly efficient removal of organic pollutants.