Construction of BiS-BiOBr nanosheets on TiO NTA as the effective photocatalysts: Pollutant removal, photoelectric conversion and hydrogen generation.

Novel energy material is the investigation focus to overcome the environment pollution and resource shortage crisis. TiO nanotube arrays (TiO NTA) could be used for pollutant decomposition, photoelectric conversion and H, CH generation. BiOBr nanosheets were fabricated on TiO NTA by a solvothermal deposition method, and then transformed into BiS nanosheets after the ion exchange reaction. The results revealed that the ion concentration significantly influenced the morphology, microstructure, optical harvesting and photoelectrochemical capacity of BiS-BiOBr/TiO NTA. The samples also exhibited high photocatalytic activity for the removal of dyes and Cr(VI), and the excellent photocurrent and photovoltage were obtained under visible light irradiation. The photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen generation was carried out, and the photocatalytic hydrogen production rate achieved 17.26 μmol·cm·h. The photocatalyst showed the remarkable stability, and the photocatalytic ability still maintained high level after several repeated photocatalytic cycles. The photocatalytic data indicated that the BiS-BiOBr/TiO NTA photocatalyst provided a perfect strategy for the sensitizer deposition on TiO NTA and novel approach for the photocatalytic performance improvement.