Visible-light S-scheme heterojunction of copper bismuthate quantum dots decorated Titania-spindles for exceptional tetracycline degradation

The rational heterojunctions for antibiotics degradation have sparked significant attention in wastewater purification. In this study, we report a unique S-scheme photocatalytic system by in-situ growth of CuBi2O4 quantum dots (QDs) onto {1 0 1} facet of TiO2 spindles (TiO2-P) via hydrothermal transformation of Na-titanate nanotubes, which is observed by transmission electron microscopy technology. The CuBi2O4/TiO2-P effectively achieves photo-degradation of tetracycline (TC) using visible light (e.g. an 82% TC degradation efficiency at 60 min), which is attributed to the promotion of the charge separation and retaining strong redox capacity at the heterojunction interfaces via the active species of O2−, OH, and h+. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that a built-in electric field forms at the interface of the S-scheme heterojunction. In all, this work introduces a straightforward in-situ hydrothermal growth method to construct S-scheme photocatalysts for effective water treatment.