Issue 5, 2022

Simultaneous photocatalytic tetracycline oxidation and chromate reduction via a jointed synchronous pathway upon Z-scheme Bi12O17Cl2/AgBr: insight into intermediates and mechanism

Abstract

The coexistence of heavy metals and antibiotics is not only unprecedently detrimental to modern wastewater but also poses unprecedented challenges to pollution elimination, arousing urgent demand for highly efficient photocatalysts as a solution. Herein, AgBr (AB) nanoparticles were chosen to load onto Bi12O17Cl2 (B12) nanosheets for their morphology and intrinsic redox potentials. The resultant 2D/0D Bi12O17Cl2/AgBr (B12/AB) composites were exposed to hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and tetracycline (TC) both individually and simultaneously to examine their removal capacity. Notably, the B12/AB 1 : 1 sample exhibited meritorious photocatalytic activity when exposed to the mixture solution of Cr(VI) and TC, with a boost in Cr(VI) reduction efficiency by 9.2-folds, while the TC degradation was also improved by 9%. The enhancement could be attributed to the 2D/0D morphology observed in TEM images, which provides abundant reaction sites, and the Z-scheme charge transfer pathway that inhibits the recombination of photogenerated charge carriers, while retaining the high redox potentials. Furthermore, the pathway of TC degradation in complex pollutant solutions was investigated with a liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with mass spectrometer (MS). The B12/AB Z-scheme system offers complimentary coordination that creates a jointed synchronous pathway for removing Cr(VI) and TC simultaneously. Therefore, this work could shed more light on the simultaneous photocatalytic removal of heavy metals and organic pollutants in wastewater.

Graphical abstract: Simultaneous photocatalytic tetracycline oxidation and chromate reduction via a jointed synchronous pathway upon Z-scheme Bi12O17Cl2/AgBr: insight into intermediates and mechanism

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 jan 2022
Accepted
14 mar 2022
First published
30 mar 2022

Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022,9, 1780-1793

Simultaneous photocatalytic tetracycline oxidation and chromate reduction via a jointed synchronous pathway upon Z-scheme Bi12O17Cl2/AgBr: insight into intermediates and mechanism

Z. Zhai, K. Ren, X. Zheng, Y. Chen, Y. Dong and H. Shi, Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022, 9, 1780 DOI: 10.1039/D2EN00028H

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