Synthesis of iron phthalocyanine/CeO Z-scheme nanocomposites as efficient photocatalysts for degradation of 2,4-dichlorophenol.

Modulating the photogenerated electrons of CeO to activate O and efficiently photocatalytic degradation of chlorophenols is a highly desired goal. Herein, we have successfully fabricated an FePc/CeO heterojunction through H-bond induced assembly. The photocatalytic degradation of 2,4-DCP by the amount-optimized FePc/CeO nanocomposite was improved by 3 times compared with that by pure CeO. By means of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and single wavelength photocurrent spectroscopy, it is confirmed that the excellent photocatalytic performance is mainly attributed to the formation of the Z-scheme heterojunction, which promotes charge separation and transfer, and the introduction of FePc broadens the visible light absorption range of the heterojunction. Moreover, O temperature-programmed-desorbed curves and electrochemical O reduction measurement results demonstrate that the single Fe-N(II) site in FePc is more conducive to promoting O activation than that of other metal phthalocyanines. Based on FT-IR and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), a possible reaction pathway of 2,4-DCP degradation was proposed. This study provides a novel strategy for preparing CeO based Z-scheme heterojunctions with abundant monoatomic sites for pollutant degradation.