BiOBr/Ag6Si2O7 heterojunctions for enhancing visible light catalytic degradation performances with a sequential selectivity enabled by dual synergistic effects.

ABSTRACT

Efficient separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs is always one of the key factors boosting visible light photodegradation efficiency. Till now, there are few reports on the synergistic competitive consumption of photogenerated active species and the synergistic adsorption of organic contaminants to promote the performance of a designed heterojunction. Herein, we design and construct a novel BiOBr/Ag6Si2O7 heterojunction with the dual synergistic effects towards methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO). The dual synergistic effects could avoid the combination of photogenerated h+/e- pairs, improve the adsorption efficiency, and even regulate the photodegradation efficiency. Thus, for an aqueous mixture of MB and MO, the BiOBr/Ag6Si2O7 photocatalyst exhibits largely improved adsorption capacities of the dyes by a multi-layer adsorption mode. Moreover, the photocatalyst could further promote the photodegradation rate of MO while slow that of MB due to the competitive consumption of photogenerated active species, showing a sequential selectivity phenomenon. Thanks to the dual synergistic effects, the adsorption capacity of MO increases 1379% higher than that of neat MO solution, and the photodegradation time decrease from 30 to 12 min with a rate constant of 0.22 min-1, 38% higher than that of neat MO solution.