Electrospinning directly synthesis of 0D/1D CuBi2O4@WO3 nanofiber photocatalyst with S-scheme heterojunction

A novel 0D/1D CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 nanofiber-membrane photocatalyst with step-scheme (S-scheme) heterojunction was fabricated by means of the electrospinning method. The disintegration of CuBi 2 O 4 microspheres under a high voltage electrospinning process led to the simultaneous formation of CuBi 2 O 4 nanoparticles on WO 3 nanofibers, therefore constructing well dispersed CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 nano-heterojunctions. The CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 composite photocatalyst followed the S-scheme charge transfer mechanism, which promoted the efficient charge transfer across the interface, thereby solving the problem that the narrow-bandgap CuBi 2 O 4 had strong light-harvesting ability but easy recombination of photo-generated carriers. Moreover, such S-scheme heterojunction also achieved the spatial separation of photo-induced electrons and holes while ensuring the promising redox abilities in both WO 3 and CuBi 2 O 4 . Hence, the CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 composite photocatalyst exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity for photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics in environmental remediation under weak-visible-light irradiation (5 W LED lamp), and its photocatalytic activity for tetracycline degradation was significantly improved, which was 8.1 times and 3.6 times than that of WO 3 nanofibers and pure CuBi 2 O 4 microspheres, respectively. The radical species trapping tests indicated that·O 2 − and h + were the main active radicals in the tetracycline photodegradation reaction, and the high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry test clarified three possible degradation reaction pathways of tetracycline. This work presented a facile method to fabricate 0D/1D CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 composite nanofiber photocatalyst with well-dispersed CuBi 2 O 4 @WO 3 nano-heterojunctions, and also provided a new idea for the preparation of new nanocomposite photocatalyst based on electrospinning process.