Excellent efficiency and cycling performance for organic pollutant degradation using Sb₂S₃ tubular photocatalysts with heterojunction structures

Antimony sulfide (Sb₂S₃) is a common and practical metal sulfide, and photocatalysis with metal sulfide is a viable solution for addressing significant water pollution issues. Simple chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method was used to successfully produce Sb₂S₃ tubes for photocatalysis in this research. XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, SAED, XPS and UV–Vis were used to examine the crystal structure, composition, morphology, and optical properties of the products. The photocatalytic activity of the Sb₂S₃ tubes was tested using a xenon lamp to simulate sunshine, methyl orange (MO) as a target degradation substance, and tetracycline hydrochloride (HTC) as a degradation substance. The results reveal that under xenon lamp illumination, the constructed Sb₂S₃ tubes has an excellent photocatalytic degradation rate for MO. The photocatalytic degradation rate of MO reaches 98.4% after 4 h, indicating good cycle performance, after five cycles, the degradation rate is 86.4%. During photocatalytic degradation, Sb₂S₃ was corroded and antimony oxide (Sb₂O₃) was formed. Sb₂O₃ on antimony Sb₂S₃ forms a Sb₂S₃/Sb₂O₃ heterojunction, which speeds up the reaction rate and improves cycling stability.