The Presence of Oxygen Vacancies and Protonation Promotes Photogenerated Charge Separation and Singlet Oxygen Generation for Efficient Removal of Gaseous Toluene Under Visible Light
摘要
The development of effective technologies for degrading low-concentration volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor environments remains a critical challenge in environmental remediation. In this work, a Bi2MoO6-based photocatalyst featuring oxygen vacancies (OVs) and protonation was successfully synthesized via a solvothermal method followed by acid treatment. The optimized catalyst exhibited remarkable performance in degrading low-concentration toluene (30 ppm), achieving 95.43% and 97.44% degradation rates under visible-light irradiation for 120 min in air and pure oxygen atmospheres. Mechanistic studies revealed that the introduced oxygen vacancies effectively suppress photo-induced carrier recombination, while protonation enhances molecular oxygen activation, modulates singlet oxygen (1O2) generation, and facilitates toluene oxidation. This synergistic strategy not only broadens the visible-light absorption range but also enables precise regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The proposed approach demonstrates excellent visible-light responsiveness and ROS controllability under mild conditions, offering a promising solution for addressing widespread environmental pollution through efficient solar-driven VOCs mineralization.