Synthesis of BiOBr/carbon quantum dots microspheres with enhanced photoactivity and photostability under visible light irradiation

•A novel BiOBr/CQDs microsphere material was successfully synthesized.•The BiOBr/CQDs materials exhibit enhanced photoactivity under visible light irradiation.•The CQDs play an important role for enhancing the photoactivity.•The BiOBr/CQDs materials exhibit rapid separation of photoexcited electron-holes.•This BiOBr/CQDs material exhibits superior visible-light absorption ability.

In this paper, BiOBr/carbon quantum dots (CQDs) microspheres were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method followed by a hydrothermal process. Then, the structures, morphologies, optical properties, and photocatalytic performances were investigated in detail. Research showed that the BiOBr/CQDs microspheres exhibited significantly enhanced photocatalytic performance as compared with pure BiOBr. When the CQDs introduction was appropriate, the highest photodegradation rate (0.0296 min−1) would be obtained in the photocatalysis process of rhodamine B (RhB) which was about 5.3 times higher than that of pure BiOBr under visible light irradiation. As for p-Nitrotoluene (PNP), it could not be photodegraded by pure BiOBr while the BiOBr/CQDs microspheres displayed obvious photocatalytic activity. In this photocatalytic system, the enhanced photoactivity was mainly attributed to the fast interfacial charge transfer ability and enhanced light harvesting for the appropriate CQDs introduction.

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