Preparation of a Type II CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 Heterojunction Photocatalyst and its Efficient Degradation of Antibiotic

In this paper, a type II CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 heterojunction composite photocatalytic material with different proportions was synthesized. The structure, morphology, and photocatalytic properties of CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and XPS. SEM showed that CeO2 and Bi2O2CO3 are closely combined, which is conducive to carrier migration and separation and improves the stability of the material. The light absorption properties of CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 composites were tested by UV-vis DRS. The photocatalytic performance of the CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 composite system was studied with chlortetracycline hydrochloride as the target material. The results showed that under the conditions of 12.5 % CeO2, 0.5 g/L catalyst, and 20 mg/L chlortetracycline hydrochloride, the photocatalytic performance of the composite system was the highest, reaching 95.2 %. Moreover, the electrochemical properties of CeO2 and Bi2O2CO3 were tested and their potential, conduction band, and valence band values were obtained. At the same time, we propose the mechanism of type II electron transfer in CeO2/Bi2O2CO3 composites.