Bi₂O₂CO₃-coating on beverage-derived carbon microspheres to achieve highly-efficient photocatalysts for ciprofloxacin degradation

Facilitating photocarrier separation is deemed to be crucial for enhancing photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts, which has drawn considerable attention recently. Herein, we have adopted soft beverage-derived carbon materials to modify Bi2O2CO3 (BOC) and realize highly-efficient enhancement in the photodegradation activity. Take carbonized Fanta (labeled as CFT, which are shaped like microspheres) as an example, BOC nanoflakes are coated on the CFT microspheres to obtain core-shell structured CFT@BOC composites. The photodegradation experiment, performed under simulated-sunlight irradiation for ciprofloxacin (CIP) degradation, demonstrates that the optimal composite 9CFT@BOC has a photodegradation activity increased by 8.75 times over that of single BOC. This phenomenon can be interpreted because of the efficient electron transfer from BOC to CFT and hence the decreasing recombination of the photoelectrons/photoholes. Systematic experimental and density functional theory (DFT) were carried out to elucidate the photocatalytic mechanism of the CFT@BOC composites as well as the CIP decomposition behavior. We have also carbonized other soft beverages (e.g., Dayao, Mirinda and Cola) to modify BOC and observed similar phenomenon for photocatalysis enhancement. The present study offers a new insight for designing excellent photocatalysts in environmental remediation.