Construction of A-FeOx/LaFeO3 hybrid microreactors for efficient photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants

Abstract

Low-dimensional hybrid nanocrystals are newly emerging active photocatalysts for separating electron-hole pairs, but the instability and low quantum efficiency caused by particle aggregation and hybrid structure relaxation remain great challenges. To this end, herein we constructed amorphous FeOx (A-FeOx) and crystalline LaFeO3 hybrids by a sol-gel method. The amorphous-crystalline hybrids, A-FeOx/LaFeO3, not only improve the surface area and alter the band position, but also form numerous channels that are conducive to the transport of electrons and separation of electron–hole pairs, acting as microreactors. Photocatalytic tests show that the A-FeOx/LaFeO3 is highly active for the degradation of various organic pollutants, with reaction rate constant of 1.19 × 10–2 min–1 for ciprofloxacin degradation, for example, which is 1.82 and 1.87 times higher than that of LaFeO3 and Fe2O3/LaFeO3, respectively, owing to the formation of microreactors between A-FeOx and LaFeO3. Cycling tests show that the material has good stability in the reaction, and trapping experiments demonstrate that the photo-induced holes are the main reactive species of the reaction. This work provides a novel and feasible insight into the design of high performance low-dimensional hybrid nanocatalysts for photocatalysis.