A novel Ag2O/Bi2WO6 composite with enhanced piezocatalytic performance for ciprofloxacin removal.

[Display omitted] • Piezocatalytic activity of Bi 2 WO 6 was potently improved by doping Ag 2 O. • Piezocatalytic removal rate of CIP reached 93.44 % ± 0.34 % using Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 composite. • Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 showed bright application prospects in environmental rehabilitation. Bi 2 WO 6 , an important semiconductor material, has been widely used in the catalytic degradation of organic wastewater in recent years. However, Bi 2 WO 6 owns the low band gap energy, the recombination of the produced e−-h+ pairs expected to be fast, which leads to undesirable degradation effects. In order to improve its piezocatalytic ability, this paper combined the semiconductor material Bi 2 WO 6 with Ag 2 O to form Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 piezoelectric catalysts, which was characterized and its removal effect on ciprofloxacin (CIP) was discussed. According to the analyses, the reaction rate constant for the piezocatalytic removal of CIP in the company of 5 % composite ratio of Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 was about 1.40 and 4.87 times higher than it was when Bi 2 WO 6 and piezocatalytic technology were used alone. By exploring the experimental principle, the increased piezocatalytic activity of Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 was found to be due to the creation of Z-scheme heterojunction, which could efficiently separate the e−-h+ pairs. Reuse experiments were also carried out, and the results showed that it has good reusability and stability in piezocatalysis. In summary, Ag 2 O/Bi 2 WO 6 has good piezocatalytic activity for the removal of CIP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]