Effective degradation of phenol by in-situ photocatalytic-Fenton-like technology with BiVO4/Bi2WO6/Ti3C2 QDs

Photocatalytically coupled Fenton-like is an environmentally promising technology for water treatment. In this work, BiVO₄/Bi₂WO₆/Ti₃C₂ QDs composite photocatalysts (BBT) were prepared by hydrothermal and calcination methods to construct an in situ photocatalytic Fenton-like system. The photocatalytic degradation experiments were carried out under xenon lamp irradiation with phenol as the target pollutant. The BBT-2 photocatalyst could degrade 78.0% of phenol in 180 min. Compared with the catalyst without Ti₃C₂ QDs doping, the degradation efficiency was improved by 14%. The H₂O₂ yield of the BBT-2 catalyst reached 48.7 μM in the same time. Free radical trapping experiments showed that the BBT photocatalysts generated H₂O₂ by two-electron reduction of oxygen and hole oxidation of water. In addition, h⁺ and H₂O₂ play important roles in the phenol photocatalytic process during the degradation of phenol, and a possible reaction mechanism has been proposed. In this work, the combination of photocatalysis and Fenton-like reaction provides a solution for the green and sustainable degradation of highly toxic, difficult-to-degrade organic pollutants.