Active magnetic Fe3+-doped BiOBr micromotors as efficient solar photo-fenton catalyst

The development of new nanomaterials for the highly efficient wastewater treatment has been one of the hot scientific researches. Herein, we report a novel 3D Fe3+-doped BiOBr-based magnetic Janus micromotors with superior solar photo-Fenton catalytic activity for organic pollutant degradation. Taking advantage of hydrogen peroxide as reagent and fuel, Fe3+-doped BiOBr based Janus micromotors exhibited extremely high efficiency for methylene blue degradation in a solar photo-Fenton system even at mild pH conditions, which was almost 4 times than BiOBr. The speed of the Janus micromotors could reach 214.7 +/- 19.4 mu m s(-1) in a 5% H2O2 solution. Factors influencing the solar photo-Fenton reaction including Fe3+-doping amount, pH, concentration of H2O2, self-propelled movement as well as mechanical stirring were investigated to clarify the degradation mechanism. Nearly 97% of methylene blue was degraded by Fe0.11Bi0.89OBr/Fe3O4/Mn3O4 Janus micromotors in the presence of 3% H2O2 solution at neutral environment within 50 min. This study provided a new insight into the preparation of Janus micromotors for water purification applications based on solar photo-Fenton reaction. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.