Materials, Vol. 16, Pages 5033: Porous Rod-like NiTiO3-BiOBr Heterojunctions with Highly Improved Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance

9 months ago 33

Materials, Vol. 16, Pages 5033: Porous Rod-like NiTiO3-BiOBr Heterojunctions with Highly Improved Visible-Light Photocatalytic Performance

Materials doi: 10.3390/ma16145033

Authors: Kaiyue Sun Mengchao Li Hualei Zhou Xiaohui Ma Wenjun Li

NiTiO3-BiOBr heterostructured photocatalysts were constructed via precipitation, calcination and hydrothermal treatments. Various characterizations demonstrated that BiOBr nanosheets were decorated on NiTiO3 nanoparticals, forming porous rod-like heterojunctions. Compared with independent NiTiO3 and BiOBr, the composites with optimal BiOBr content presented highly improved visible-light photocatalytic efficiency. The degradation rates of Rhodamine B (RhB) and tetracycline (TC) reached 96.6% in 1.5 h (100% in 2 h) and 73.5% in 3 h, which are 6.61 and 1.53 times those of NiTiO3, respectively. The result is an improved photocatalytic behavior from the formation of heterojunctions with a large interface area, which significantly promoted the separation of photogenerated carriers and strengthened the visible-light absorption. Based on the free radical capture experiments and band position analysis, the photodegradation mechanism of type-II heterojunction was deduced. This study provides a new way to fabricate highly efficient NiTiO3-based photocatalysts for degrading certain organics.

Read Entire Article