Flower-like silver bismuthate supported on nitrogen-doped carbon dots modified graphene oxide sheets with excellent degradation activity for organic pollutants.

In this study, a new ternary AgBiO/GO/NCDs composite (GO = graphene oxide, NCDs = nitrogen-doped carbon dots) has been successfully prepared through in-situ growth of flower-like AgBiO on GO/NCDs complex support. The AgBiO/GO/NCDs composite exhibits significantly enhanced degradation activities towards organic pollutants of rhodamine B, phenol and tetracycline. Especially, the refractory tetracycline (20 mg L) can be completely removed within 6.0 min with a dosage of 30 mg of AgBiO/GO/NCDs under the assistance of peroxymonosulfate (PMS, 0.2 mM). It is revealed that GO in the composite can facilitate the quick and efficient electron transfer and improve the generation of reactive oxygen species during the degradation process, while the NCDs may play double roles as both the electron-acceptor and the reactive site. Besides, the electrons can be captured by PMS to produce plenty of sulfate radicals (SO) with very strong oxidation ability. All these factors collaboratively promote the degradation efficiency of AgBiO/GO/NCDs towards organic pollutants. The excellent degradation activities of AgBiO/GO/NCDs endow it with potential application in wastewater purification.