Interfacial Zn-O-Ce bond modulated CeO2/ZnCo2O4 Z-scheme heterojunction for photocatalytic degradation of ciprofloxacin and basic fuchsin

Rational design of heterojunction is of vital importance for addressing the rapid recombination problem of photogenerated charge carriers in photoreactions. Herein, a highly efficient Z-scheme heterojunction with interfacial Zn-O-Ce bonds was successfully fabricated by hybridizing 3D flower-like hierarchical ZnCo 2 O 4 (ZCO) microspheres with CeO 2 nano particles (NPs) and used to photocatalytic remove multiple pollutants. These features of Z-scheme charge transfer mechanism and chemically bonded interface not only reserved the strong oxidation–reduction ability of CeO 2 /ZCO hybrid but also speeded up electron migration from CeO 2 to ZCO. Meanwhile, the 3D hierarchical structure provided rich photocatalytic reaction sites and increased light harvesting ability. Thus, the as-prepared CeO 2 /ZCO displayed an extraordinary photocatalytic decomposition of Ciprofloxacin (CIP) and Basic Fuchsin (BF), removal rate as high as 87.6 % and 90.7 %, respectively. This work can enlighten a new insight to design versatile hetero-catalysts for solar energy conversion.