Construction of dual Z-scheme Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/black phosphorus quantum dots composites for effective bisphenol A degradation

• Published in: Journal of environmental sciences (China) Vol. 124; pp. 617 - 629
• Main Authors: Du, Fuyou, Lai, Zhan, Tang, Huiyang, Wang, Haiyan, Zhao, Chenxi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.02.2023
• Subjects: Bi2WO6; Bisphenol A (BPA); Black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs); Dual Z-scheme; Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4); Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4); Bisphenol A (BPA); Bi2WO6; Dual Z-scheme; Black phosphorus quantum dots (BPQDs)
• ISSN: 1001-0742; 1878-7320
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jes.2021.10.027

In this work, a novel dual Z-scheme Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/black phosphorus quantum dots (Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/BPQDs) composites were fabricated and utilized towards photocatalytic degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) under visible-light irradiation. Optimizing the content of g-C3N4 and BPQDs in Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/BPQDs composites to a suitable mass ratio can enhance the visible-light harvesting capacity and increase the charge separation efficiency and the transfer rate of excited-state electrons and holes, resulting in much higher photocatalytic activity for BPA degradation (95.6%, at 20 mg/L in 120 min) than that of Bi2WO6 (63.7%), g-C3N4 (25.0%), BPQDs (8.5%), and Bi2WO6/g-C3N4 (79.6%), respectively. Radical trapping experiments indicated that photogenerated holes (h+) and superoxide radicals (•O2−) played crucial roles in photocatalytic BPA degradation. Further, the possible degradation pathway and photocatalytic mechanism was proposed by analyzing the BPA intermediates. This work also demonstrated that the Bi2WO6/g-C3N4/BPQDs as effective photocatalysts was stable and have promising potential to remove environmental contaminants from real water samples. [Display omitted]