Construction of nanoporous MOF with channel transfer effect and coupling AgCl for enhancing photodegradation efficiency

Constructing heterojunctions to suppress the recombination rate of electron−hole pairs is an effective method for improving photocatalytic efficiency. However, the transfer rate of active species has rarely drawn attention. In this study, a nanoporous CoY-MOF photocatalyst with a channel transfer effect is developed. It is formed by one Co 3+ ion, one Y 3+ ion, and three deprotonated pyridine carboxylate ligands through coordination bond. Furthermore, a Z-scheme heterojunction CoY-MOF/AgCl composite photocatalyst is successfully constructed by coupling the nanoporous CoY-MOF with AgCl. The heterojunction interface of CoY-MOF/AgCl enhances significantly the separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes, utilizes effectively charge carriers, and strengthens photocatalytic performance. More importantly, the channel transfer effect of the nanoporous MOF promotes the rapid migration of active species, increasing the transfer rate of reactants to the active species. The synergistic effect of these two aspects further improves the degradation efficiency of organic pollutants. Under visible light irradiation, the degradation efficiency of tetracycline (TC) for CoY-MOF/AgCl-35 within 21 min is approximately 87.56 %, which is higher than that of pure CoY-MOF (47.80 %) and AgCl (54.42 %). This paper provides a new strategy for constructing highly efficient heterojunction engineering in photocatalysis.