Construction of Flexible Biobr/W18o49/Polyacrylonitrile Discrete Heterojunction Nanofibers as a Dual-Functional Photocatalyst for Simultaneous Hydrogen Evolution and Organic Pollutant Degradation

Simultaneous dual-functional photocatalysis have attracted increasing attention due to its ability to achieve efficient synchronous hydrogen evolution and pollutant removal. The reasonable design of energy band structure and surface morphology of photocatalysts is an advantageous strategy to realize high activity of simultaneous dual-functional photocatalysis. In this paper, flexible BiOBr/W18O49/PAN discrete heterojunction nanofibers with staggered energy band and spatially separated redox surfaces were prepared by a combination of electrospinning technology and hydrothermal method. The BiOBr/W18O49 heterojunction can improve carrier separation and migration, as evidenced by the photoluminescence and photoelectrochemical experiments. The LSPR effect of W18O49 can achieve injection of “hot electrons” and lead to expanding the light absorption range according to the UV-visible-near infrared diffuse reflection spectra results. The discrete structure of BiOBr/W18O49/PAN nanofibers can provide spatially separated active sites for simultaneous photocatalytic redox reaction. As expected, the BiOBr/W18O49/PAN discrete heterojunction nanofibers greatly enhance the photocatalytic activity in simultaneous dual-functional reaction for H2 evolution and RhB degradation. The highest simultaneous H2 evolution rate and RhB degradation rate of BiOBr/W18O49/PAN nanofibers is 31.7 times and 34.1 times of BiOBr/PAN, respectively. The design and construction of this flexible discrete heterojunction nanofibers structures can provide novel ideas and directions for simultaneous dual-functional photocatalysts.