Tuning surface sites to boost photocatalytic degradation of phenol and ciprofloxacin

There is an urgent demand for tuning the selectivity and activity of the photocatalysts to remove co-existent pollutants simultaneously. Herein, we introduced the surficial activity sites into the bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr), including the Bi/Bi-O defects and hetero Cu atoms, and then the higher photocatalytic activity and selectivity of BiOBr were realized for degradation phenol and ciprofloxacin (CIP). It can be found that the Bi/Bi-O defects played more important role in enhancing the photocatalytic activity for degradation of phenol, while the Cu atoms significantly improved the photocatalytic activity for removing CIP. Moreover, the heterogeneous Cu atoms as the activity sites excited the reaction between phenol and CIP even under dark condition and were beneficial for synchronously removing phenol and CIP. This work provides a feasible way for BiOX photocatalyst to remove co-existent pollutants and may have a practical application.