Efficient visible-light-driven degradation of tetracycline by a 2D/2D rGO-Bi2WO6 heterostructure

Constructing heterostructures has been a simple yet effective strategy for improving the photocatalytic performance of individual semiconductor photocatalysts. However, the poor quality of the contacted interface coupled with the narrow and overlapping light absorption scope between heterocomponents limits potential improvement. Herein, a 2D/2D rGO-Bi 2 WO 6 heterostructure with face-to-face compact contact interface and UV to NIR light absorption ability was synthesized to overcome the aforementioned limitations. The as-prepared 2 wt%-rGO-Bi 2 WO 6 with a high contact interface quality exhibits the highest kinetic rate of (5.53 ± 0.75) × 10 −2  L mg −1 min −1 toward tetracycline (TC) degradation, which is 2.4 times higher than that of pristine Bi 2 WO 6 and 2.1 times higher than that of the 2 wt%-rGO-Bi 2 WO 6 composite with a poor interface quality. Moreover, approximately 30% of TC can be mineralized with a 2 wt%-rGO-Bi 2 WO 6 presented system after 120 min. The subsequent Escherichia coli culture and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry were employed to detect the biotoxicity variation of degradation intermediates and the possible transformation pathways of TC, respectively. Finally, the reactive species trapping results indicate that photogenerated holes and superoxide radical anions play dominant roles during the TC degradation process. This work provides a facile and effective method to fabricate an efficient heterojunction photocatalyst for pollutant degradation .