Degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH) by active photocatalyst rich in oxygen vacancies: Performance, transformation product and mechanism

Regulation of oxygen defects, in addition to the adjustment of spatial arrangement and bandgap in the materials can effectively improve the materials’ photocatalytic performance. Bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) are widely used in the field of photocatalysis because of its abundant active sites and the regulable surface area. Herein, a novel introducing oxygen vacancies (OVs) strategy was developed to synthesize hierarchical 3D BiOBr microsphere constructed by nanopetals, and a serious of tests were used to characterize and quantify OVs. Moreover, the applications of BiOBr with different concentrations of OVs in water antibiotic pollution was discussed, and specific effect of OVs on the photocatalytic performance was also analyzed simply. Benefiting from its rich OVs, the UV–vis light-driving tetracycline hydrochloride degradation efficiency increased to 86.8% within 20 min irradiation. Hence, this work provides theoretical guidance for the regulation of OVs, and the prospect of photocatalyst containing OVs in the photocatalytic field were suggested.