Abstract
In this study, we constructed a Z-scheme photocatalyst BiOCl-Ag-AgBr for the first time, with the aim of simultaneously removing the heavy metal Cr6+ ions and organic pollutant phenol in waste water. It was found that Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were selectively deposited on the {001} facets of BiOCl nanosheets in the process of photoreduction, and the outer layer of Ag NPs was further transformed into AgBr in the presence of Fe3+ and Br−. Compared with BiOCl and BiOCl-Ag, the ternary structure BiOCl-Ag-AgBr displays obviously higher photocatalytic activity for both Cr6+ reduction and phenol degradation. There exists a synergetic effect between Cr6+ ions and phenol for enhancing the photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts, i.e., the presence of Cr6+ ions can promote the degradation of phenol, while the existence of phenol also accelerates the reduction of Cr6+. The radical trapping experiments confirmed that BiOCl-Ag-AgBr is a Z-scheme semiconductor and all of e−, O2−, OH, and h+ take part in the reactions of Cr6+ reduction and phenol degradation. The superior photocatalytic activity of BiOCl-Ag-AgBr should be ascribed to both its excellent sunlight response and the effective separation efficiency of photogenerated charge carriers with high redox ability.
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