The excellent photocatalytic synergism of PbBiO2Br/UiO-66-NH2 composites via multiple coupling effects

Abstract

PbBiO₂Br/UiO-66-NH₂ composites synthesized by a facile solvothermal method have a core–shell structure with UiO-66-NH₂ forming the shell around a PbBiO₂Br core. Their photocatalytic activities in the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) dye solution and colorless phenol solution under visible light irradiation were investigated. For both model organic pollutants, the PbBiO₂Br/UiO-66-NH₂ composites exhibit higher photocatalytic activity than the pure components. This synergistic effect is due to the high adsorption capacity of UiO-66-NH₂ and the compounding induced an enhanced separation efficiency of photogenerated electron–hole pairs. The composite with a 3 : 2 mass ratio of PbBiO₂Br to ZrCl₄ exhibits the highest photocatalytic activity for RhB degradation, in which trapping experiments confirm that the photogenerated holes and O₂˙⁻ radicals are the main active species.