Synthesis of novel Ce-BiOBr photocatalyst nanosheet for the photodegradation of rhodamine B dye

Semiconductor photocatalysis has been known as a promising strategy for removing organic dye pollutants, while pristine BiOBr still suffers from rapid charge recombination and limited visible-light responses. In the present study, cerium-doped BiOBr (Ce-BiOBr) nanosheets were synthesized via a solvothermal technique and evaluated for the effective degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under visible-light irradiation. Density functional theory (DFT) analysis, coupled with photoelectrochemical evaluation, confirms that within the band structures of BiOBr, Ce doping introduces Ce 4f intermediate energy levels. The intermediate energy level facilitates the effective suppression of carrier recombination and the rapid migration of photogenerated electrons. Consequently, the optimized Ce-BiOBr photocatalyst achieves a remarkable degradation rate constant of 0.03416 min -1 , which is nearly four times higher than that of pristine BiOBr (0.00874 min -1 ). Additionally, the active species trapping experiment reveals that in degradation processes, the superoxide radical (•O 2 - ) acts as the dominant reactive species. These results highlight the critical role of Ce-BiOBr in tailoring the electronic structure and charge-transfer behavior of BiOBr, providing an effective strategy for designing high-performance visible-light photocatalysts for environmental remediation. Download: Download high-res image (229KB) Download: Download full-size image