Fabrication of BiFeO3-g-C3N4-WO3 Z-scheme heterojunction as highly efficient visible-light photocatalyst for water reduction and 2,4-dichlorophenol degradation: Insight mechanism

In this work, a Z-scheme BiFeO3-g-C3N4-WO3 (BFO-CN-WO) photocatalyst has been synthesized via a wet chemical method and utilized in photocatalysis for hydrogen generation and 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) degradation under visible light irradiation. The resultant photocatalyst showed 90 μmol·h-1 g-1 H2 evolution activity and 63% 2,4-DCP degradation performance, which is 12 and 4.2 times higher than the pristine g-C3N4 respectively. The fascinating photocatalytic performance is attributed to the strong interfacial contact between g-C3N4 and the coupled BiFeO3 and WO3 component, which greatly improved the visible light absorption and charge carriers’ separation. The designed Z-scheme heterojunction is a successful strategy for enhancing the separation efficiency of photo-induced charge carriers at the interface while retaining outstanding redox ability. During 2,4-DCP degradation, LC/MS technique was used to detect the reaction intermediates. According to the LC/MS results, several new intermediates such as 2,3-dichloro-6-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)phenol (m/z = 306), 2,4-dichlorophenyl hydrogen carbonate (m/z = 207), 2,4-dichlorobenzen-1,3-diol (m/z = 177) and phenyl hydrogen carbonate (m/z = 137) were detected. Based on these intermediates, 2,4-DCP degradation pathway is proposed. The fluorescence (FL) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) results reveal that the •OH plays an important role in the 2,4-DCP degradation. The fabricated photocatalyst can be utilized in the field of photocatalysis for practical applications.