Novel shungite based Bi2WO6 carbocatalyst with high photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation

Abstract

Carbonaceous photocatalytic materials have drawn wide attention in recent years for enhanced the photocatalytic performance. There have been many reports on the preparation from different carbon sources such as activated carbon, graphene, carbon nanotubes, etc. Here, we present novel carbon-rich shungite based Bi2WO6 catalyst as a visible‒light‒induced photocatalyst. The structural, morphological, optical and physical properties were explored by XPS, XRD, FTIR, Raman, SEM-EDS, AFM, UV-DRS and TGA analyses. SEM images revealed that Bi2WO6 nanoflakes dispersed over the carbon-rich shungite surface with sizes of 50 nm. The Bi2WO6 carbo-catalyst showed stronger absorption in the visible region where lower band gap of 2.6 eV was achieved. The photocatalytic activities of samples were examined by the degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) aqueous solution under UV-A and visible irradiation. Compared with pure Bi2WO6, shungite based carbo-catalyst exhibited superior photodegradation performance. The recycling experiments demonstrated that the carbo-catalyst had high photo activity without any change in surface morphology and chemical state. This work suggests that carbon-rich shungite is a potential natural carbon resource for the fabrication of visible‒light‒induced photocatalysts.