Ionic liquid-induced strategy for porous perovskite-like PbBiO2Br photocatalysts with enhanced photocatalytic activity and mechanism insight

• An ionic liquid induced strategy for the synthesis of porous perovskite-like PbBiO2Br materials.
• Porous PbBiO2Br structures exhibited the maximum BET and showed the highest photocatalytic activity.
• The superoxide radical (O2−) and hole (h+) are the dominant species for the degradation of pollutants.

A novel perovskite-like PbBiO2Br uniform porous microspheres photocatalyst was successfully prepared via ethanol glycol (EG)-assisted solvothermal method in the presence of reactable ionic liquid 1-hexadecyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([C16mim]Br) and polyvinyl-pyrrolidone (PVP) system. During the synthetic process, the ionic liquid-PVP complex system acts as the solvent, reactant and template simultaneously, and demonstrates excellent control capability for PbBiO2Br porous microstructure. The photocatalytic activity of the PbBiO2Br materials was evaluated by colorless antibiotic agent ciprofloxacin (CIP), endocrine disrupter bisphenol A (BPA), and colored rhodamine (RhB), methylene blue (MB) as target pollutants under visible light irradiation. After several characterizations, the influencing factor of the promotional photocatalytic activity for PbBiO2Br photocatalysts was discussed in detail. Through the ESR and trapping experiment verification, the superoxide radical (O2−) and hole (h+) were the main active species for the photocatalysis process.

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