Polar solvent induced in-situ self-assembly and oxygen vacancies on Bi2MoO6 for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline
Fangyan Liu, Dongyue Su, Weizhen Liu, Baiquan Liu, Chuan Liu, Hong Wang, Mengye Wang
Abstract
It has been proved to be an effective route to efficiently ameliorate photocatalytic performance of catalysts via designing three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical nanostructures and constructing oxygen vacancies (V Os ). However, controlling the self-assembly of organization into 3D hierarchical nanostructures while introducing V Os in photocatalysts remains a challenge. Herein, we reported an ethylene glycol (EG) mediated approach to craft 3D hydrangea-structure Bi 2 MoO 6 with V Os for efficient photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline. Through manipulating the EG concentration during the fabrication process, the influence of EG concentration on the Bi 2 MoO 6 structure was systematically investigated. EG could promote the self-assembly of Bi 2 MoO 6 nanosheets to form a 3D hierarchical structure. Compared with 2D nanoplates, 3D hierarchical architecture enhanced the surface area and the amount of active sites of Bi 2 MoO 6 . In addition, the reduction effect of EG on metallic oxide enabled the generation of V Os in Bi 2 MoO 6 . The V Os adjusted the electronic structure of Bi 2 MoO 6 , which not only enhanced the light harvesting, but also facilitated the simultaneous utilization of photo-induced electrons and holes to form reactive oxygen species (·O 2− and ·OH) for the efficient tetracycline decomposition. 3D Bi 2 MoO 6 hydrangea with V Os achieved a 79.4% removal efficiency of tetracycline after 75 min. This work provides a simple yet robust EG-mediated strategy, which not only promotes the self-assembly of nano-catalysts into 3D hierarchical architectures, but also crafts tunable V Os for highly efficient photocatalysis.