Enhanced photocatalytic activity in hybrid composite combined BiOBr nanosheets and Bi2S3 nanoparticles

Abstract To improve photocatalytic activity of 2D BiOBr nanosheets, Bi 2 S 3 nanoparticles were introduced to fabricate the hybrid composite using co-precipitation method. The Bi 2 S 3 loading 15 wt% amount of as-prepared composite shows the optimal visible light-driven photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) and ciprofloxacin (CIP). Radicals trapping experiments are further conducted to detect the reactive active species generated during the irradiation of BiOBr/Bi 2 S 3 -15 photocatalyst. It demonstrated that h + and ∙O 2 − play the key role in photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. Photocurrent response, EIS and PL spectra reveal that the enhanced photocatalytic performance of BiOBr/Bi 2 S 3 hybrid material shows higher separation efficiency of the photo-generated electron–holes pairs.