Simultaneous removal of heavy metal ions and organic pollutant by BiOBr/Ti3C2 nanocomposite

Photocatalytic purification of wastewater is a very attractive method to remove pollutants. However, it has not been widely used in the industry due to limitations in photocatalytic performance and the complexity and diversity of contaminants. It is of great significance to simultaneous treatment of multiple pollutants. In this work, we designed and successfully synthesized a BiOBr/Ti3C2 nanocomposite by electrostatically driven self assembly method. The degradation performance of BiOBr/Ti3C2 nanocomposite was evaluated by the degradation efficiency of rhodamine B (RhB), 2,4-Dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP) and Cr(VI). By coupling the Ti3C2 with BiOBr, the degradation activity of BiOBr was greatly improved. The degradation apparent rate constant of rhodamine B(RhB), 2,4-Dinitrophenol (2,4-DNP) and Cr(VI) with BiOBr/Ti3C2 were 1.2, 1.3, 6 times that of BiOBr, respectively. The photocatalytic performance of BiOBr/Ti3C2 toward RhB still maintained 85.6% after 5 cycles. The use of BiOBr/Ti3C2 deal with the multicomponent pollutants has also been achieved. The results showed that RhB and Cr(VI) can be completely removed with 80 min by BiOBr/Ti3C2. The enhanced catalytic performance mainly arises from the formation of Schottky junction at BiOBr-Ti3C2 interface, which greatly promoted the separation of carriers. This work provides a new insight into the design of Ti3C2 based Schottky photocatalysts.