Design of 1D/2D BiS/NiAl-LDH Heterojunction with Enhanced Photothermal-Photocatalytic Degradation of Tetracycline.

Rational design of a dual-functional photothermal-photocatalytic heterostructure has received considerable attention in recent years. Herein, we proposed a 1D/2D BiS/NiAl-LDH heterostructure system through a two-step hydrothermal method and used it for tetracycline degradation. Structural and morphological characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, SEM, and TEM corroborated the successful anchoring of LDH nanosheets on flower-like BiS. Various BiS/NiAl-LDH heterostructure samples were prepared with different BiS contents (5, 7, 10, and 15 wt %) and denoted as BSL- ( = 1, 2, 3, 4). The optimum composite (BSL-2) achieved a remarkable degradation efficiency of 95.7% under full-spectrum light irradiation. The photocatalytic reactions proceeded based on a pseudo-first-order kinetics model. The rate constant value for BSL-2 was 0.0162 min, 4.90 and 4.26 times more than BiS and LDH, respectively. This considerable improvement in degradation efficiency is because of the intrinsic photothermal nature of bismuth sulfide, which enhances the light-harvesting capability of the BiS/LDH heterostructure. Furthermore, 1D/2D heterojunctions caused charge carriers to separate and migrate faster, enhancing photocatalytic performance. Our article could yield a precious perspective on highly efficient 1D/2D heterojunctions based on the photothermal effect for various photocatalytic applications.