Enhanced photocatalytic degradation performance of Bi₂WO₆ via O₃ modification

Bi2WO6 with enhanced photocatlytic degradation performance was successfully synthesized by a facile O-3 etching method. The photocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning elec-tron microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance spectra. Characterization results revealed that the O-3 treated Bi2WO6 photocatalyst has abundant of oxygen vacancies, which could effectively restrain recombination of photon-generated carriers, broaden light absorption region, serve as pho-tocatalytic reaction center. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of the prepared photocatalysts were evaluated by the photocatalytic degradation of benzidine under a xenon lamp irradiation. The photocatalytic activity of treated Bi2WO6 photocatalyst samples with O-3 pose a greater improve-ment. Among that, the O-3-Bi2WO6-3-4 modifying with ozone flux of 3.0 L/min for 4 h photocatalytic degradation of benzidine wastewater reached similar to 76.0% in 180 min under the irradiation of xenon lamp light (lambda = 420 nm), which is about similar to 2.1 times higher than that of pure Bi2WO6. Moreover, the photocatalytic activities of the modified Bi2WO6 via O-3 exhibit without significantly decrease after four cycles, indicating that the photocatalyst has a favourable application prospect.