Innovative ternary composite photocatalyst: BiOCl/Bi12O17Cl2/Bi2O3 for sustainable water remediation

The presence of pollutants in aquatic environments is causing severe health effects on both humans and animals. To address this issue, it has become crucial to develop more efficient and environmentally friendly photocatalysts for the removal of persistent pollutant mixtures from water. In this cont...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Pérez del Pulgar, Helena; Ortiz-Bustos, Josefa; Torres-Pardo, Almudena; Parras, Marina; Hierro, Isabel del; Pérez, Yolanda
Format: Article
Publication date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Repository:BURJC-Digital. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
OAI Identifier:oai:burjcdigital.urjc.es:10115/33747
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10115/33747
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:BiOCl-based ternary composite
Electrochemical properties
Visible light-active photocatalyst
Ciprofloxacin
Methyl paraben
Description
Summary:The presence of pollutants in aquatic environments is causing severe health effects on both humans and animals. To address this issue, it has become crucial to develop more efficient and environmentally friendly photocatalysts for the removal of persistent pollutant mixtures from water. In this context, photocatalysts containing more than two bismuth-based materials have rarely been explored for water remediation. With this in mind, we propose an innovative ternary composite, BiOCl-1/Bi12O17Cl2/Bi2O3, as a potentially sustainable visible light-active photocatalyst. Firstly, bismuth oxychloride has been prepared in the presence of ionic liquid, leading to the formation of BiOCl-1 with highly reactive {1 1 0} facets. Subsequently, the construction of the ternary composite has been accomplished using a facile and soft hydrothermal approach. The as-prepared BiOCl-1/Bi12O17Cl2/Bi2O3 composite has been successfully used in degrading binary mixtures of contaminants (i.e. ciprofloxacin, methylparaben or methyl orange), achieving an improved visible-light photocatalytic activity compared to single BiOCl-1 and other previously reported bismuth-based photocatalysts. In addition, the photocatalytic mechanism and degradation pathways have been elucidated through scavenger and electrochemical experiments, as well as chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis, respectively