Emergence of S-scheme-derived Ag decorated CuBi2O4/CNTs/(BiO)2CO3 photocatalyst with enhanced visible light photocatalytic performance

Background: Due to advantages like low cost, and high catalytic efficiency, photocatalysis has attracted more and more attention. The present investigation presents a straightforward and cost-effective hydrothermal method for producing Ag-decorated CuBi2O4/CNTs/(BiO)(2)CO3 composites with varying weight percentages of (BiO)(2)CO3. Methods: Herein, systematic investigations were conducted to examine the crystal, morphological, and optical properties of the photocatalysts. The investigation focused on evaluating the photocatalytic performance via visible light-assisted photodegradation of methyl orange (MO) and rhodamine B (RhB). Significant findings: Findings revealed that loading of (BiO)(2)CO3 efficiently improved the photoactivity of the composite. The Ag-CuBi2O4/CNTs/(BiO)(2)CO3 heterojunction photocatalyst with 15 % loading of (BiO)(2)CO3 has expressively enhanced photocatalytic performance, estimated around 97.79 % of RhB and 98.29 % of MO photo-degraded within 70 min in visible light irradiation, which was also found much enhanced than that of bare CuBi2O4 and (BiO)(2)CO3. Re-cyclic experiments indicated that fabricated semiconductor hybrid photo-catalyst own good photo-stability as well as reusability. The involvement of center dot O-2- and center dot OH active radical species in the process of increased photo-degradation has been demonstrated using ESR and radical trapping tests. The description of the full photocatalytic mechanism based on the S-scheme was conducted by considering the estimated energy band locations, electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis and reactive oxygen species (ROS) trapping tests. This study presents a pragmatic methodology for the development of wide-bandgap bismuth-derived semiconductors that exhibit effective photo-degradation for environmental remediation.