Self-Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species on Crystalline AgBiO3 for the Oxidative Remediation of Organic Pollutants

In this study, we synthesized a novel perovskite nanomaterial consisting of AgBiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) via an ion-exchange method for remediation of polluted environments. The AgBiO3 NPs could self-produce significant amounts of reactive oxygen species (ROS) without light illumination or any other additional oxidant due to the controllable release of lattice oxygen from the crystalline AgBiO3, resulting in the formation of ROS somehow. The self-produced O-1(2), O-2(center dot-), and (OH)-O-center dot were confirmed by electron spin resonance spectroscopy using a spin trap technique. We found that the AgBiO3 NPs could be reused for the mineraliztion of most recalcitrant organic compounds alone, including Rhodamine B (RhB), phenol, 4-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, and bisphenol A. After the repeated eight cycles of continious treatment of RhB, AgBiO3 NPs still achieved 79% of degradation after 30 min of treatment. Characterization results revealved that the lattice oxygen inside AgBiO3 was activated to form active oxygen (O*), which resulted in consecutive formation of ROS. This study provides new insight on the lattice oxygen activation mechanism of silver bismuthate and its application to the remediation of polluted waters.