Modification strategies of BiOI-based visible-light photocatalysts and their efficacy on decomposition of tetracycline antibiotics in water

Abstract

Photocatalysis is regarded as a potent alternative to conventional treatment methods with low removal efficiency (e.g., activated sludge process) against refractory/recalcitrant antibiotics in wastewater. Here, the potential utility of bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI)-based materials has been evaluated as visible-light–driven photocatalysts (bandgap energy < 2.0 eV) with unique optical structure for the enhanced treatment of tetracyclines (TCs) as a representative antibiotic product. The effects of key modification strategies (e.g., elemental doping and heterojunction formation) on the photocatalytic activity of BiOI-based photocatalysts are assessed against TCs in terms of the key performance metrics such as quantum efficiency (QE) and space-time yield (STY). This review also highlights the challenges and promising opportunities for the photocatalytic application of BiO-based materials against TCs in real effluents. Accordingly, zinc-doped BiOI is recognized to have the maximum efficiency with QE of 2.95 × 10⁻⁵ molecules photon⁻¹ and STY of 2.95 × 10⁻⁷ molecules photon⁻¹mg⁻¹. This review is expected to help deepen the exploration path to the construction of efficient BiOI-based systems based on their performance evaluation along with the discussions on their perspectives.

Keywords:

• BiOI photocatalyst
• modification strategies
• performance evaluation
• tetracycline antibiotics
• wastewater treatment

Handling Editors:

• Lena Q. Ma and Jose-Julio Ortega-Calvo

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) of Korean government (Grant No: 2021R1A3B1068304 and NRF-2020H1D3A1A04079166).