Construction of ternary bismuth-based heterojunction using (BiO)2CO3 as electron bridge for highly efficient degradation of phenol

Inspired by nature, it has been considered an effective approach to design artificial photosynthetic system by fabricating Z-scheme photocatalyst to eliminate environmental issues and alleviate the global energy crisis. However, the development of low cost, environment-friendly, and high-efficient photocatalysts by utilizing solar energy still confronts huge challenge. Herein, we constructed Bi2O3/(BiO)2CO3/Bi2MoO6ternary heterojunction via a facile solvothermal method and calcination approach and used it as a photocatalyst for the degradation of phenol. The optimized Bi2O3/(BiO)2CO3/Bi2MoO6 heterojunction delivers a considerable activity for phenol photodegradation with an impressive removal efficiency of 98.8% and about total organic carbon (TOC) of 68% within 180 min under visible light irradiation. The excellent photocatalytic activity was ascribed to the formation of a Z-scheme heterojunction, more importantly, the presence of (BiO)2CO3 as an electron bridge greatly shortens the migration distance of photogenerated electron from ECB of Bi2O3 to EVB of Bi2MoO6, thus prolonging the lifetime of photogenerated electrons, which is verified by trapping experiments, electron spin-resonance spectroscopy (ESR) results, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. This work provides a potential strategy to fabricate highly efficient Bi-based Z-scheme photocatalysts with wide application prospects in solar-to-fuel conversion and environmental protection.