Facile synthesis of nitrogen-doped BiOBr nanoplates for degradation of florfenicol via a synergistic photocatalytic peroxydisulfate activation

Abstract

In this work, a series of nitrogen-doped BiOBr (N-BOB) 2D nanoplates were synthesized by a one-pot hydrothermal method, which are used for an integrated photocatalytic peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation process under visible light. By virtue of N doping that results in narrowed band gap, extended light response range and more efficient separation of photo-induced charge carriers, N-BOB shows a florfenicol degradation ratio up to 87.30% in 1 h, surpassing the unmodified BiOBr (65.4%). Furthermore, the synergistic effect between the photocatalysis and the PDS activation is found to facilitate the generation of reactive oxygen species that are identified to be 1O2, h+, •O2-, •OH and SO4•-, in which 1O2, h+ and •O2- play a major role.

Keywords: Doping, Photocatalysis, peroxydisulfate activation, BiOBr, antibiotics