Hydrothermal Synthesis, Formation Mechanism and Photocatalytic Activity of SnO₂/BiOBr

Abstract

SnO2/BiOBr photocatalytic materials were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method with BiOBr as the precursor. X‐ray diffraction studies confirmed that BiOBr and SnO2 were successfully combined. After characterization, we proposed a possible formation mechanism for SnO2/BiOBr. The degradation experiment showed that the degradation rate of norfloxacin using SnO2/BiOB‐4 reached 85.9 %, which was approximately 50 and 65 percentage points higher than that of pure BiOBr and SnO2, respectively. The reaction rate was 4.3 times that of BiOBr. Based on the analysis of the degradation mechanism, the improved photocatalytic performance may be attributed to the optimized energy band structure resulting from the combination of the two monomers. This promotes the effective separation of photogenerated electrons and holes, leading to the generation of more active substances such as ⋅O2− and h+. As a result, the oxidation capacity is enhanced.