Fabrication of 3D ultra-light graphene aerogel/Bi2WO6 composite with excellent photocatalytic performance: A promising photocatalysts for water purification

Herein, we fabricated an ultra-light graphene aerogel/Bi2WO6 (GA/BW) photocatalyst with macroscopic 3D architecture via in-situ synthesis, which had preferable activity for organic wastewater purification. We carefully characterized the physical and chemical properties of this macroscopic 3D architecture, finding that the flower-like Bi2WO6 (BW) uniformly loaded on the surface of GA, improving the visible light absorption performance, photon-generated carrier separation efficiency and organic contaminants adsorption ability, as well as photocatalytic ability compared with that of pure BW powders. When the mass ratio of GA and BW is 6:8, the degradation efficiency of rhodamine B (RhB) and sulfanilamide (SN) can reach 97.49% and 55.81% in 120 min, respectively. The as-prepared GA/BW composite is ultra-light and suitable for practical wastewater purification due to its flexibility and recyclability. The trapping experiments involved the main active species in the photocatalytic process were carried out and the results indicated that the h+ is the dominant oxidative species for the degradation of RhB. (C) 2019 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.