The degradation of
environmental contaminants with photocatalysts
has bright prospects for application in the control of pollution.
In this study, BiOBr/ZnO/WO
3
heterojunctions have been
documented to be reliable visible-light photocatalysts for phenol
deterioration. X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy,
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy,
transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence spectral analysis,
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), EIS Bode plots, linear
sweep voltammetry, and UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
were employed to describe the heterojunction’s structure in
addition to its optical features. The results revealed that the BiOBr/ZnO/WO
3
ternary photocatalyst displayed more degradation activity
in comparison to single-phase ZnO, WO
3
, or BiOBr, which
is also higher than that of binary mixture photocatalysts with a phenol
degradation efficiency of 90%. The influence of degradation variables,
for instance, the potential of hydrogen (pH) and the initial organic
contaminant content besides the heterojunction dose, on the deterioration
efficiency was optimized using the response surface methodology. The
degradation efficiency reached 95% under the optimal conditions of
0.08 g/0.03 L catalyst dose, a pH of 9, and an initial organic contaminant
content of 10 mg L
–1
. However, the optimal phenol
degradation efficiency of 39.37 mg g
–1
was achieved
under the conditions of 0.08 g/0.03 L catalyst dose, pH of 9, and
200 mg L
–1
initial phenol concentration.