Surface modified Bi2SiO5 microflowers with Fe3+ doping for efficient degradation of organic contaminants

In this paper, a novel surface-doped Fe-Bi2SiO5 photocatalyst was synthesized by the oil bath method for the first time. Compared with the pure Bi2SiO5, the degradation rate constants of the FB-2 (the mole ratio of Fe/Bi was 1.7%) were increased by 3.8 and 5 times for Ciprofloxacin (CIP) and Rhodamine B (RhB), respectively. In addition, the results of the total organic carbon (TOC) test manifested that the mineralization capacity of FB-2 for CIP and RhB were increased to 40.7% and 64.7%, respectively. Moreover, the effects of catalyst dosage, initial solution concentration, initial pH and inorganic anions on photocatalytic performance were studied. The cyclic degradation experiments of FB-2 verified the excellent stability of photocatalysts, while active species trapping experiments and electron spin resonance (ESR) tests showed that superoxide radicals and holes played a major role in the degradation process. The paper presented that the photocatalytic activity of Bi-based photocatalysts was improved by a surface modified method, which provided a new idea for further study.