Prof. Wu Zhengyan and his research team from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have recently introduced a high-efficiency Z-scheme photocatalyst to deal with contaminants in water. The study was published in ACS Applied Nano Materials.
Rapid industrialization has caused increasingly severe environmental pollution. Various organic pollutants in water have become major threats for human health and ecosystem security worldwide. So, an effective treatment approach has become an urgent task for elimination of organic pollutants at present.
In the new research, the Bi2WO6(CdTeQDs/2DBWO) photocatalyst with a giant built-in electric field (BEF) was proved to extremely promote the dissociation of exciton and generation of reactive oxygen species.
Scientists demonstrated that BEF plays a positive role in photocatalytic process. The photodegradation efficiency of phenol, rhodamine B and tetracycline by BEF is much higher than that of pure Bi2WO6 under visible light.
The self-prepared CdTeQDs/2DBWO photocatalyst has a slight advantage in photocatalytic efficiency for pollutants, when compared with the commercial TiO2 photocatalyst. There are still some difficulties in the practical application of self-prepared photocatalyst, because of the complicated synthesis process and high cost. The research opens up a new route for designing high-efficiency photocatalysts.
