Preparation of a novel composite photocatalyst BiOBr/ZIF-67 for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic degradation of RhB

In the preparation process of a novel composite photocatalyst BiOBr/ZIF-67, BiOBr prepared by one-step hydrothermal synthesis was used as the base material, and ZIF-67 was attached to the surface of BiOBr by the one-pot method; a series of BiOBr/ZIF-67 composite photocatalysts were prepared by changing the ratio of ZIF-67. Through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and other characterization methods, the prepared composites were systematically analyzed, the visible-light photocatalytic activity of which for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) was studied, and a possible photocatalytic mechanism was proposed. It can be concluded from the experiment that BiOBr/ZIF-67(30%) with the best photocatalytic activity could degrade 95.2% of RhB, which is 50% higher than pure BiOBr. The prepared BiOBr/ZIF-67 was inferred to be a direct Z-Scheme heterojunction photocatalyst, which possessed intimately contacted interface and well-aligned straddling energy-band structures. In this visible-light heterojunction photocatalysts, ZIF-67 increased the specific surface area of composites, which was propitious to bring improved photocatalytic performance.