Oxygen vacancies and interfacial iron sites in hierarchical BiOCl nanosheet microflowers cooperatively promoting photo-Fenton

Controllable active site construction, crystal structure regulation and efficient charge separation are core issues in heterogeneous photo-Fenton. Herein, abundant oxygen vacancies and well-dispersed interfacial iron sites are simultaneously constructed in hierarchical nanosheet-assembled BiOCl microflowers. The composites exhibit superior performance in photo-Fenton oxidation of carbamazepine (10 mg L−1) with a low H2O2 concentration (1.3 mM). The high performance highly depends on the synergistic effects between oxygen vacancies and iron species. Rather than modulating the valence band, the involvements of oxygen vacancies and iron species could modify the conduction band of BiOCl. The presence of oxygen vacancies promotes the migration of photo-generated electrons and accelerates the redox cycling of ≡Fe(III)/≡Fe(II) to boost the activation of H2O2 to generate hydroxyl radicals, and oxygen vacancies can be well preserved after cyclic use. This work provides understanding on efficient utilization of oxygen vacancies and interfacial iron sites to assist photo-Fenton and the underlying electron transfer mechanism.