Enhanced photocatalytic activity in hybrid composite combined BiOBr nanosheets and Bi2S3 nanoparticles

Abstract

To improve photocatalytic activity of 2D BiOBr nanosheets, Bi2S3 nanoparticles were introduced to fabricate the hybrid composite using co-precipitation method. The Bi2S3 loading 15 wt% amount of as-prepared composite shows the optimal visible light-driven photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and ciprofloxacin (CIP). Radicals trapping experiments are further conducted to detect the reactive active species generated during the irradiation of BiOBr/Bi2S3-15 photocatalyst. It demonstrated that h+ and ∙O2− play the key role in photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. Photocurrent response, EIS and PL spectra reveal that the enhanced photocatalytic performance of BiOBr/Bi2S3 hybrid material shows higher separation efficiency of the photo-generated electron–holes pairs.