Photo-electrocatalytic based removal of acetaminophen: Application of visible light driven heterojunction based BiVO4/BiOI photoanode

Photoelectrocatalytic Based Simultaneous Removal of Multiple Organic Micro-Pollutants by Using a Visible Light Driven Bivo4 Photoanode

“…The two peaks at 528.05 and 528.85 eV were assigned to oxygen in the lattice structure of BiVO 4 and was bonded to Bi and V, respectively. A relatively low intensity peak observed in the O spectrum at 529.95 eV represented the surface adsorbed oxygen [47,51]. Overall, the XPS results successfully confirmed the presence of constituent elements (Bi, O and V) of BiVO 4 , which was in accordance with the XRD and EDX results.…”

“…5 (a) that <10% of each OMP was removed as a result of the direct exposure of the reaction solution to the incoming simulated solar light. This low removal by photolysis is in accordance with the absorbance properties of ACT, BTA and PRO as all three OMPs absorb majorly in the UV range below nm [38,47,59,60]. Photolysis results confirmed that removal of the selected OMPs was due of the use of the BiVO 4 photoanode for PEC advanced oxidation.…”

“…Surface morphology and micro/nano-structure analysis of fabricated photoanodes was carried out by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The detailed description of the characterization techniques is given in our previous research publication [47]. Surface profilometry technique was used to measure the layer thickness of each photoanode by using a Veeco Detak 8 surface profilometer.…”

“…Removal of selected OMPs by PEC based AOP with the use of the prepared photoanodes was carried out by using an Autolab potentiostat (PGSTAT128N) in three electrode cell. The experimental process was similar to our previously published research [47] A quartz reactor cell containing three electrodes and 167 mL of electrolyte solution was used for the PEC based AOP removal experiments. 0.1 M Na 2 SO 4 containing ACT, BTA and PRO each with a concentration of 45 μg L − 1 at a pH of 6.8 was used as electrolyte for the removal experiments.…”

“…The concentration of three OMPs in the samples was measured by using liquid chromatography combined with tandem triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The complete measurement procedure is described in our previous publication [47]. Based on the measured concentrations of OMPs, removal efficiency of BiVO 4 photoanode for each OMP was calculated by using the following equation:…”