Hydrochloric acid-mediated synthesis of ZnFe2O4 small particle decorated one-dimensional Perylene Diimide S-scheme heterojunction with excellent photocatalytic ability

The recyclable and stable ZnFe2O4 small particle decorated one-dimensional perylene diimide (PDI) S-scheme heterojunction (1D PDI/ZnFe2O4) is prepared by the hydrochloric acid-mediated (HCl-mediated) strategy, interestingly, the morphology of the 1D PDI/ZnFe2O4 can also be effectively regulated by HCl-mediated process, the existence of HCl can regulate PDI into a uniform rod structure, while the co-existence of HCl and PDI can limit ZnFe2O4 to become the uniform small particles. More importantly, based on the 1D rod structure of PDI and the small size effect of ZnFe2O4, carriers can migrate to the surface more easily, which can improve the photocatalytic activity. Meanwhile, due to the appropriate energy level structure, the S-scheme heterojunction structure is formed between PDI and ZnFe2O4, which eliminates meaningless photo-generated charge carriers through recombination and introduces strong redox to further enhance the photodegradation effect, thereby, 1D PDI/ZnFe2O4 exhibits excellent photocatalytic ability, under the visible light irradiation, the degradation rate of tetracycline (TC) with 1D PDI/ZnFe2O4 (66.67%) is 9.18 times that with PDI (7.26%) and 9.73 times that with ZnFe2O4 (6.85%). This work proposes new ideas for the assembly of magnetic organic-inorganic S-scheme heterojunction photocatalysts.