Fabrication of BiOBr-silicone aerogel photocatalyst in an aqueous system with degradation performance by sol-gel method

It is a challenge to endow the material with the ability to pollutants degradation while maintaining the oil/water separation performance. Herein, the mixed dispersion of BiOBr photocatalyst and silicone sol was adsorbed in melamine foam. Superhydrophobic BiOBr-silicone aerogel (WCA=154°) was obtained through the transfer melamine foam to an autoclave and reaction at 80°C for 20 h. The prepared superhydrophobic BiOBr-silicone aerogel can effectively remove the water soluble pollutants which remain within the water phase after oil/water separation. The band gap of the superhydrophobic BiOBr-silicone aerogel was calculated to be 2.71 eV, which shows sensitivity to visible light (458 nm). Through mechanism analysis, it is found that the VB position of BiOBr is at 1.07 eV and the position of CB is at -1.64 eV. Finally, we prepared a superhydrophobic BiOBr-silicone aerogel (5 cm×5 cm×3 cm) for the verification of the large scale preparation.