Room-temperature hydrolysis fabrication of BiOBr/Bi12O17Br2 Z-Scheme photocatalyst with enhanced resorcinol degradation and NO removal activity

BiOBr-based photocatalysts hold great promise in the application of organic wastewater treatment and air purification. However, the catalysis ability of photocatalyst is greatly limited by its poor reduction capacity and intrinsic high recombination rate of photo-generated charge carriers. In this work, a novel direct Z-scheme BiOBr/Bi12O17Br2 photocatalyst is prepared via a facile hydrolysis route at room temperature, which exhibits highly enhanced performance for resorcinol degradation and NO removal than pure Bi12O17Br2 and BiOBr. The formation of the direct Z-scheme heterojunction is substantiated by radical scavenging experiments and the analysis of electronic structure, and it benefits the photocatalytic reaction by accelerating the charge separation and improving the redox ability. Finally, the underlying photocatalytic mechanism is elucidated based on the band structure and radical scavenging experiments. This study provides a facile strategy for bismuth halide Z-scheme heterojunction constructing at room temperature and also sheds light on highly efficient photocatalysts designing. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.