Synthesis of clinoptilolite-supported BiOCl/TiO2 heterojunction nanocomposites with highly-enhanced photocatalytic activity for the complete degradation of xanthates under visible light

Novel ternary BiOCl/TiO2/clinoptilolite (BTC) nanocomposites with highly-enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light were prepared by a facile hydrothermal route combining with a water bath precipitation procedure. In the nanocomposites, BiOCl nanosheets (BNSs) and TiO2 nanoparticles (TNPs) were uniformly dispersed on the surface of flake-like clinoptilolite. Sodium isopropyl xanthate (SIPX) was selected as the target contaminant to evaluate the photocatalysis of the obtained samples. Obviously, BTC photocatalyst showed more excellent adsorption and degradation performance for SIPX than single TiO2 or BiOCl as well as their binary composites with clinoptilolite. Given that the characterization analysis and experimental results, the highly-enhanced photocatalytic activity was mainly attributed to the effective construction of BiOCl/TiO2 heterojunction and the excellent adsorption ability of clinoptilolite in BTC nanocomposites. Radical scavenger tests demonstrated that superoxide radical anions (center dot O-2(-)) and photogenerated holes (h(+)) were the dominant active species in the reaction system. It is proposed that such novel nanocomposites could be used as efficient photocatalysts for the complete degradation of xanthates under visible light.

Automated summary

A novel ternary BiOCl/TiO2/clinoptilolite (BTC) nanocomposite with highly-enhanced photocatalytic activity under visible light was successfully prepared via a facile hydrothermal route, showing excellent adsorption and degradation performance for the target contaminant SIPX. The enhanced photocatalytic activity was mainly attributed to the effective construction of the BiOCl/TiO2 heterojunction and the excellent adsorption ability of the clinoptilolite in the BTC nanocomposites, as confirmed by characterization analysis and experimental results. Radical scavenger tests indicated that superoxide radical anions and photogenerated holes were the dominant active species in the reaction system, suggesting the potential of these novel nanocomposites as efficient photocatalysts for complete degradation of xanthates under visible light.