Assembling durable BiFeO3/ZIF-8 heterojunction photocatalysts for boosted photocatalytic activity

Herein, a novel nanohybrid composite of BiFeO 3 decorated with ZIF-8 has been developed as a possible efficient photocatalyst for oxalate malachite green (MG) degradation. ZIF-8 possesses a relatively large bandgap, making it unfeasible to achieve visible-light-based photocatalytic behavior. Consequently, BiFeO 3 was selected as a hybrid photocatalyst with ZIF-8 due to its narrow bandgap, which enables the composite photocatalyst to response to the visible-light spectrum rather than the ultraviolet. The results showed that the constructed BiFeO 3 /ZIF-8 heterojunction degrades 96.5% of MG under visible light within 90 minutes. The synergistic state between BiFeO 3 and ZIF-8 meaningfully improves the transfer of photocharges at the heterojunction interface, preventing their recombination, and considerably increasing the overall photocatalytic activity. Besides, the BiFeO 3 /ZIF-8 photocatalyst system established remarkable stability, keeping more than 88% photocatalytic performance after five rounds. This work shows the impending of combining mixed-metal ferrites with high surface area metal-organic-frameworks to boost photocatalytic behavior for wastewater remediation.