Facile synthesis of sponge-loaded Bi2WO6 photocatalyst and degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride under visible light

Abstract

A sponge-loaded Bi2WO6 catalyst was prepared through a facile physical load method by using sponge as the carrier and PVA as the immobilizing agent. The as-prepared photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) and element mapping. The results indicated that the addition of PVA did not impact the crystalline structure of Bi2WO6 and the Bi2WO6 catalyst had been successfully loaded to the sponge surfaces with the presence of PVA.The preparation conditions were optimized with the orthogonal experiment and confirmed by photocatalytic activity evaluation to be: 0.04 mmol PVA, the sponge-to-catalyst mass ratio of 1:1, the solid-to-liquid ratio of 8 g/L, and load temperature 100 °C. Under the optimum conditions, the average load rate of the photocatalysts was 43.24 % and the TCH photocatalytic degradation under visible light reached 94.00 %. Moreover, the sponge-loaded Bi2WO6 composite catalyst showed a stable photocatalytic activity under visible light irradiation.