One-pot hydrothermal preparation of Bi/Bi2O2CO3 with improved photocatalytic activity for bisphenol A degradation

Bi/Bi2O2CO3 composite photocatalytic materials with oxygen vacancies were synthesized in one step by a hydrothermal method using bismuth nitrate pentahydrate as the bismuth source and N,N-dimethylformamide as the carbon source and reducing agent. The photocatalytic degradation performance of Bi/ Bi2O2CO3 under simulated sunlight was investigated using the environmental hormone pollutant bisphenol A as the degradation target. The results show that the synergistic effect of Bi metal plasmon resonance effect (SPR) and oxygen vacancies promotes the effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, which greatly improves the photocatalytic ability. The degradation rate of Bi/Bi2O2CO3 for bisphenol A (85.2 %) is 2.67 times higher than that of the single-component material Bi2O2CO3 (31.9 %).The effect of external conditions (pH, anions, cations) on the photocatalytic performance was investigated. As well, ESR and active intermediate species capture experiments were performed on the composites, and it was deduced that h+, 1 O 2 , and & sdot; O 2- were the main reactive substances in this reaction system. And toxicity experiments were conducted on the degradation products, which proved that the toxicity of the degradation products was reduced.