One-step construction of heterostructured metal-organics@BiO with improved photoinduced charge transfer and enhanced activity in photocatalytic degradation of sulfamethoxazole under solar light irradiation.

A facile one-step assembly method was developed for the preparation of metal-organics @BiO composites for photocatalysis. Two kinds of metal-organics (Ti-bdc and Cu-btc)@BiO composites were synthesized via the coordination of btc/bdc and metal ions (Ti/Cu) as well as OH on the surface of BiO. Compared with pure BiO Ti-bdc@BiO shows a 1.7 times higher photocatalytic activity in the degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) under a simulated solar irradiation with a cumulative removal of 62% within 60 min. The high photocatalytic activity could be attributed to the high charge separation, enhanced electron transfer as well as the low recombination rate of photo-generated electrons and holes due to the construction of hetero-structures. The stability test showed that Ti-bdc@BiO is more stable in water than Cu-btc@BiO. Furthermore, through the radical-trapping experiments and main intermediates detection, it is demonstrated that the photo-generated holes as well as the OH and O formed dominate the photocatalytic decomposition of SMX. These findings demonstrate the potential usage of a facile method to synthesize metal-organics and metal oxides composites, some of which possess high water stability and thus could be employed for water treatment.