In‐situ construction of Bi2O2CO3/MIL‐101(Cr) nanosheet catalyst for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of organic dye molecules from water.

For nearly a century, the excessive discharge of organic contaminants has gradually polluted water and endangered people's health, and photocatalysis has been prominently employed to remove persistent recalcitrant organic. Here, MIL‐101(Cr) was firstly employed to introduce thin‐layered Bi2O2CO3 for the formation of Bi2O2CO3/MIL‐101(Cr) nanosheet composite, by a simple and low‐temperature in‐situ growth approach. The phase, morphology, optical, and surface characteristics of the fabricated composite were characterized through XRD, FTIR, SEM‐EDS, N2 adsorption–desorption, UV–Vis DRS, PL, TG, and XPS techniques, and the ability in the photocatalytic breakdown of rhodamine B (RhB) molecule under visible light was also studied. The results of characterization analysis and optical analysis exhibited that Bi2O2CO3/MIL‐101(Cr) has large pore size, good visible light response‐ability, and the heterojunction created by intercalating Bi2O2CO3 on MIL‐101(Cr). Photocatalytic studies revealed that Bi2O2CO3/MIL‐101(Cr) had superior RhB degradation activity than pure MIL‐101(Cr) and Bi2O2CO3, which achieved 97.1% with visible light irradiation for 20 mg/l RhB. Meanwhile, the Bi2O2CO3/MIL‐101(Cr) composite displayed good recyclability after three cycles as revealed by XRD and FTIR analysis proving their excellent stability. This study provides feasible insight into developing novel and efficient MIL‐101‐based heterojunction catalysts for environmental remediation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]