Construction of PCN-222(Pt)/BiOCl heterojunction with built-in electric field drive charge separation for enhanced photocatalytic performance

It is a sustainable method to mitigate the greenhouse effect and environmental pollution through photocatalysis. However, photocatalysts suffer from low light absorption and poor separation efficiency of photoinduced carriers, which shows unsatisfactory photocatalytic performance. Herein, the PCN-222(Pt) has been loaded on BiOCl nanoflowers assembled from nanosheets through the heating process of oil bath. The PCN-222(Pt)/BiOCl heterostructures show promoted CO₂ adsorption capacity and improved migration efficiency of photogenerated carriers, resulting in enhanced CO₂ and Cr(VI) photoreduction activities. The optimized PCN-222(Pt)/BiOCl-2 shows a CO generation rate of 41.88 μmol g⁻¹ after irradiation for 5 h. Besides, the PCN-222(Pt)/BiOCl-2 also shows a higher Cr(VI) removal efficiency of 95.89% under irradiation for 80 min with visible light. Furthermore, the evolution process of CO₂ molecules in the CO₂ photoreduction process has been investigated by in-situ FTIR, and the active species in Cr(VI) reduction was explored through capture experiments. This work offers a promising available reference for enhancing photocatalytic performance.