Structural and optical properties of polyhedral N-doped ZnO@BiVO4 nanocomposite photocatalyst derived from ZIF-8

ZIF-8 dodecahedra precursor and BiVO4 nanoparticles were prepared using in-situ self-assembly and solvothermal methods, respectively. Then, an environmentally friendly ZnO@BiVO4 composite photocatalyst based on N-doped ZnO polyhedra containing carbon skeletons (NCZ) was obtained by calcining the mixture of ZIF-8 precursor and BiVO4 nanoparticles. The improvement of oxygen vacancy (VO) defects induced by N element doped in the ZnO component was determined, which was conductive to the photocatalytic performance improvement of the composite. Furthermore, the type-I transfer mechanism of carriers was identified in the ZnO@BiVO4 composite. The influence of BiVO4 and NCZ mass ratio on its photocatalytic performance under simulated solar light was studied by degrading tetracycline (TC) solution, and when the mass ratio was 20 %, the composite photocatalyst exhibited the optimum photocatalytic performance. In addition, the influences of TC solution pH value, initial TC solution concentration, and photocatalyst dosage on the degradation performance of the photocatalyst were further studied. The optimized conditions provide a feasible strategy for its application in photocatalytic degradation of industrial wastewater pollutants.