Plasmonic Bi promotes the construction of Z-scheme heterojunction for efficient oxygen molecule activation

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are essential to photocatalytic degradation of antibiotics in water. In this work, we prepared Ag₃PO₄/Bi@Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ by simple in-situ reduction method and precipitation method, which improves the ability to capture visible light and increases the activity of photoinduced molecular oxygen activation, resulting in reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as superoxide radicals (•O₂^-), hydroxyl radicals (•OH), and H₂O₂. The excellent TC degradation efficiency derive from the SPR effect of the metal Bi on the surface enhances the light absorption intensity, and development of a Z-scheme heterojunction between Ag₃PO₄ and Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ promotes the activation of molecular oxygen. A possible photodegradation mechanism of the as-prepared photocatalyst was proposed. This work provides an insight perspective to the synthesis photocatalysts with molecular oxygen activation for environmental remediation.