Visible-light-driven photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B using Bi2WO6/GO deposited on polyethylene terephthalate fabric

Zoufei Du,Sihang Zhang,Ronghui Guo,Hongyan Xiao,Ce Cui,Erhui Ren,Shouxiang Jiang

doi:10.1186/s42825-020-00029-w

Abstract

The environmental repercussions of wastewater from the dye process mean that it is very important to obtain an eco-friendly photocatalyst that would degrade wastewater. Herein, bismuth tungstate/graphene oxide (Bi2WO6/GO) composites are fabricated through in-situ hydrothermal reaction and then the Bi2WO6/GO photocatalysts are deposited onto polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric. The obtained Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabrics are then characterized through XPS, Raman, SEM, TEM, XRD, UV-vis, BET method and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) to investigate their chemical and crystal structures, morphology, optical property, surface area and photochemical properties. Photocatalytic performance is studied through examining the rate of degrading rhodamine B (RhB) under visible light. Surface of PET fibers is densely covered with Bi2WO6/GO. Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabrics show a broad absorption band in the visible spectra. Removal rate of RhB on the Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabric is the highest with the GO content of 2 g/L (labeled as Bi2WO6/2 g/LGO). The result of active species experiment shows that superoxide radicals (·O2−) plays a major role in the degradation of RhB. Moreover, Bi2WO6/2 g/LGO deposited PET fabric shows excellent cycle stability of photocatalytic degradation for RhB. The findings in this work can be extended to preparation other types of composite on the textile for photocatalysis, which can be applied to remove dyes in the wastewater produced by the textile or leather industry.Graphical abstract

Highlights

It is well known that industries can contribute to the contamination of water bodies, such as textile and leather industries because a large volume of water is used in the process, generating large amounts of effluents
Bi2WO6 and Graphene oxide (GO) was complexed and treated by a facile hydrothermal method to obtain Bi2WO6/GO and they were deposited on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric
3.1 X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectra Chemical compositions of Bi2WO6 and Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabrics were studied by XPS spectroscopy (Fig. 1a-e)

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that industries can contribute to the contamination of water bodies, such as textile and leather industries because a large volume of water is used in the process, generating large amounts of effluents. GO can be readily dispersed in water at the molecular level, which exhibits biocompatibility and possesses tunable band gap These can inspire this study to explore its potential as a photocatalytic material [16, 17]. There have been some reports on the fabrication of bismuth tungstate/graphene oxide (Bi2WO6/GO) for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes [18, 19]. Most researchers mainly focus on the study of the photocatalytic property of Bi2WO6/GO powders It is not easy for the Bi2WO6/GO powder to be separated and recycled from the dye solution during the photocatalysis. There are no reports about Bi2WO6/GO composite photocatalysts depositing on textiles for the dye degradation. The photocatalytic performance and recyclability of the Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabrics were investigated by the decomposition of RhB under visible light. Effect of GO concentration on the photocatalytic properties of Bi2WO6/GO deposited PET fabric was studied

Experimental

Results and discussion

Conclusions