Interface engineering of 0D/2D Cu 2 O/BiOBr Z-scheme heterojunction for efficient degradation of sulfamethoxazole: Mechanism, degradation pathway, and DFT calculation

Constructed heterojunction has been considered an efficient strategy to enhance the migration and transfer of photoinduced charge carriers. Herein, a Z-scheme Cu O/BiOBr heterojunction with 0D/2D structure was fabricated by microwave hydrothermal method. It was found that the optimal composites phot...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inChemosphere (Oxford) Vol. 346; p. 140596
Main Authors Wang, Kai, Yu, Xiaojiao, Liu, Zongbin, Zhang, Ting, Ma, Yao, Niu, Jinfen, Yao, Binhua
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 01.01.2024
Subjects
Density Functional Theory
Environmental Pollutants
Lighting
Sulfamethoxazole
CuO/BiOBr
Photocatalysis
0D/2D heterojunction
Fermi energy level equilibrium
Z-scheme
Mechanism
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Constructed heterojunction has been considered an efficient strategy to enhance the migration and transfer of photoinduced charge carriers. Herein, a Z-scheme Cu O/BiOBr heterojunction with 0D/2D structure was fabricated by microwave hydrothermal method. It was found that the optimal composites photocatalyst showed excellent activity for sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) illumination, and the removal rate reached 90.7%, which was higher than pristine Cu O (53.0%) and BiOBr (60.0%). Subsequently, the operational parameters such as catalyst dosage, concentrations of pollutants, and pH of solution were investigated. According to the ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRs), Mott-Schottky curve, and density functional theory (DFT) analysis, the Z-scheme degradation mechanism of Cu O/BiOBr heterostructure was proposed. Among them, the interface structure of 0-dimensions/2-dimensions (0D/2D) can significantly increase the number of heterojunctions in the composite catalyst, and Z-scheme heterostructures can accelerate the generation and migration of photoinduced charge carriers, which has a facilitation effect on improving the decomposition activity of the photocatalyst. Moreover, three possible pathways for SMZ degradation were inferred. This study provides a promising strategy for constructing novel heterojunctions with high photocatalytic performance.
ISSN:1879-1298