Carbon fiber cloth@BiOBr/CuO as immobilized membrane-shaped photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic H2 production activity

Hydrogen plays an important role in developing an environment-friendly, low-emission, and sustainable energy system. Carbon fiber (CF) cloth is a useful porous and conductive substrate. Loading appropriate semiconductor nanomaterials on CF cloth is an effective method to fabricate flexible and high-performance photocatalysts. Carbon fiber (CF) cloth@BiOBr/CuO were synthesized as immobilized membrane-shaped photocatalysts by the growth of BiOBr using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR), followed by calcination and forming the CuO cocatalyst. The loading of optimized amounts of BiOBr (three immersion cycles in the SILAR process) and the CuO shell leads to enhanced H2 production activity. The CF cloth@BiOBr/CuO photocatalyst (S3BOB3C) is a flexible, membrane-shaped, and immobilized photocatalyst with high activity (1863 μmol h−1 g−1), which is 4.4 times active when compared to the CF cloth@BiOBr photocatalyst (S1BOB) (423 μmol h−1 g−1). The p-n heterojunctions in BiOBr/CuO composites with type-II band alignment can improve photocatalytic H2 production performance.