A Novel Organic/Inorganic Dual Z-Scheme Photocatalyst with Visible-Light Response for Organic Pollutants Degradation

The design of highly efficient organic/inorganic photocatalysts with visible-light response has attracted great attention for the removal of organic pollutants. In this work, the polyacrylonitrile (PAN) worked as the matrix polymer, while polyaniline (PANI) and Sb2S3-ZnO were used as organic/inorganic photocatalysts. The heterojunction PAN/PANI-Sb2S3-ZnO photocatalyst was prepared using electrospinning and surface ultrasound. PAN/PANI-Sb2S3-ZnO exhibited an excellent visible-light absorption intensity in the wavelength range of 400-700 nm. The maximum removal efficiencies of PAN/PANI-Sb2S3-ZnO for four organic dyes were all greater than 99%. The mechanism study showed that a dual Z-scheme could be constructed ingeniously because of the well-matched bandgaps between organic and inorganic components in the photocatalyst, which achieved efficient separation of photogenerated carriers and reserved photogenerated electrons (e(-)) and holes (h(+)) with strong redox ability. The active species center dot OH and center dot O-2(-) played an important role in the photocatalytic process. The composite photocatalyst also had excellent stability and reusability. This work suggested a pathway for designing novel organic/inorganic composite photocatalysts with visible-light response.