Template in situ synthesis of flower-like BiOBr/microcrystalline cellulose composites with highly visible-light photocatalytic activity

Weiming Zhou ¹, Shichang Sun ¹, Yifan Jiang ¹, Mingxin Zhang ¹, Ibrahim Lawan ¹, Gerard Franklyn Fernando ^{1, 3}, Liwei Wang ^{2, 4}, Zhanhui Yuan ¹

1. College of Materials Engineering, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China

2. Fujian Key Laboratory of Novel Functional Textile Fibers and Materials, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China

3. School of Metallurgy and Materials, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

4. Ocean College, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, China

Abstract

To enhance the visible light photocatalytic activity for the degradation of organic pollutants, this study focused on the synthesis of flower-like BiOBr/microcrystalline cellulose inorganic-organic hybrid photocatalysts by one-step facile method at room temperature and used microcrystalline cellulose as template and support. Findings reveal that the band gap energy (E_g), the valance band (E_VB) and conduction band (E_CB) edge potential of the hybrid photocatalysts are 2.71 eV, 3.00 eV and 0.29 eV, respectively. Also, the synthesized catalyst degraded Rhodamine B (RhB) solution under visible light and the active species was found to be mainly photogenerated holes. Moreover, the photocurrent density of the synthesized hybrid photocatalyst is higher than the pure BiOBr under visible light. The average pore diameter of the resulting hybrid photocatalyst stood at 43.72 nm. Overall, a novel flower-like hybrid photocatalyst has been synthesized and it has exhibited an effective activity in RhB dye degradation with the multiple reflections under visible light.

Keywords

BiOBr, Flower-like, Microcrystalline cellulose, Organic–inorganic hybrid photocatalysts, Visible light photocatalytic activity

AdsorptionLink:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10570-019-02722-4

Down this paper: 19-Cellulose-Template in situ synthesis of flower-like BiOBr microcrystalline cellulose composites with highly visible-light photocatalytic activity.pdf