BiOBr/Ag/AgBr heterojunctions decorated carbon fiber cloth with broad-spectral photoresponse as filter-membrane-shaped photocatalyst for the efficient purification of flowing wastewater

The development of recyclable photocatalysts with broad-spectral photoresponse has drawn much attention for the practical application in flowing wastewater treatment. Herein, we have reported the construction of BiOBr/Ag/AgBr junctions on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) as broad-spectral-response filter-membrane-shaped photocatalyst that is efficient and easily recyclable. With CFC as the substrate, BiOBr nanosheets (diameter: 0.5-1 lm) were firstly synthesized by a hydrothermal method, and then Ag/AgBr nanoparticles (size: 100-300 nm) were prepared on the surface of CFC/BiOBr by using a chemical bath deposition route. CFC/BiOBr/Ag/AgBr presents superior flexibility and wide UV-Vis-NIR photoabsorption (from 200 to 1000 nm). Under visible light irradiation, CFC/BiOBr/Ag/AgBr (area: 4 x 4 cm(2)) can remove 99.8% rhodamine B (RhB), 99.0% acid orange 7 (AO7), and 93.0% tetracycline (TC) after 120 min, better than CFC/BiOBr (95.4% RhB, 55.0% AO7 and 91.2% TC). Interestingly, when CFC/BiOBr/ Ag/AgBr is served as a filter-membrane in a photoreactor to purify the flowing sewage (RhB, rate: similar to 1.5 L h(-1)), the degradation rate of RhB goes up to 90.0% after ten filtering grades. Therefore, CFC/BiOBr/Ag/AgBr has great potential to purify the flowing wastewater as a novel filter-membrane-shaped photocatalyst. (c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study presents a recyclable and efficient photocatalyst with broad-spectral-response constructed on carbon fiber cloth for flowing wastewater treatment. The photocatalyst exhibited high removal efficiencies of rhodamine B, acid orange 7, and tetracycline under visible light irradiation, outperforming traditional photocatalysts.