Preparation and visible-light photocatalytic properties of PO43- doped Bi2O2CO3/Bi0

Oxygen vacancies construction and metallic Bi-0 loading were proven effective ways for enhancing the light absorption performance of semiconductor materials and promoting the separation of photogenerated carriers. In this work, metal Bi (Bi-0) decorated PO43- doped Bi2O2CO3 (BOC) nanocomposites (Bi-P-BOC) was successfully prepared through a simple co-precipitation method with a subsequent thermal reduction process, and its photocatalytic degradation mechanism of ofloxacin (OFX) under visible light irradiation was studied. The result demonstrated that PO43- was uniformly doped in BOC, which showed increased visible light response range, increased surface defects, and enlarged specific surface area. Through the thermal reduction process, a number of oxygen vacancies were produced as well as the loading of Bi-0 on the surface of BOC. Bi-P-BOC was able to degrade 85% of the OFX in 180 min under visible light with a degradation rate of 0.013 0 min(-1), which was about eight times than pristine BOC and about two times than P-BOC-6. The UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy spectrum showed the enhanced visible light absorption attribute to the surface plasmon resonance effect of Bi-0. The improved separation of the photoinduced electron and hole pairs were confirmed by the photoluminescence spectrum. Thus, the enhanced photocatalysis performance of Bi-P-BOC may mainly be benefited from its increased visible light response range and improved separation of the photoinduced electron and hole pairs. Furthermore, h(+) was detected to be the main reactive oxygen species (ROS) species for the degradation of OFX in this system, O-1(2) and center dot O-2(-) also made contributions to the degradation.