Interaction of BiVO4 anchored 2D hexagonal boron nitride nanocomposite for photocatalytic water pollutants degradation and phytotoxicity assessment

Abstract

Water pollution caused by chemical contaminants has become an ongoing issue for society, industry, and government. In comparison to traditional treatment approaches, nanotechnology is currently an ideal medium for microbial and organic pollutant removal from water. This study aims to create BiVO4/h-BN nanocomposites for effective photocatalytic degradation. The nanocomposite was studied using XRD, UV-Vis, FTIR, Zeta potential, SEM, TEM, BET, XPS, PL, EIS, and M-S plot analysis. The morphological analysis showed that the formed boron nitride is a hexagonal structure on which BiVO4 is anchored. The band gap of prepared h-BN is 5.8 eV, whereas the band gap of the binary BiVO4/h-BN nanocomposite is 2 eV. The photocatalytic effectiveness of the nanocomposite was employed to degrade various water-polluting dyes like Rhodamine-B (Rh-B) and Congo red (CR) and antibiotics like Amoxicillin (AMX) and Cephalexin (CPX). Furthermore, under visible light, BiVO4/h-BN nanocomposites decomposed up to 93.3%, 92.9%, 94.1%, and 90.1% against Rh-B, CR, AMX, and CPX after 60 min, according to the photocatalytic treatment study. The degradation efficacy of the catalyst was studied using scavengers to understand the mechanism. The BiVO4/h-BN nanocomposites are a good and inexpensive photocatalyst for degrading techniques. Further phytotoxicity analyses were carried out using the degraded Rh-B dye sample which shows a better result when compared to non-treated dye.