Efficient mineralization of TBBPA via an integrated photocatalytic reduction/oxidation process mediated by MoS/SnInS photocatalyst.

Currently, Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) has been regarded as an emerging organic pollutant and efficient TBBPA elimination technology has been attracting increasing attention. In this work, a novel photocatalyst, MoS/SnInS, was synthesized through hydrothermal method by introducing few-layer MoS nanosheets and then employed to establish an integrated photocatalytic reduction/oxidation system for the remediation of TBBPA under visible light. The characterization results demonstrated that the few-layer MoS nanosheets were well combined with SnInS and significantly lowered the recombination rate of the photo-induced electron and holes, leading to outstanding photocatalytic performance of MoS/SnInS composite. Besides, the MoS/SnInS composite also exhibited excellent reusability (over 10 runs) and stability. The TBBPA degradation experiments showed that the integrated photocatalytic reduction/oxidation system was able to completely degrade TBBPA and mineralize its byproducts (60.2 ± 2.9%). In the photocatalytic reduction, due to the cleavage of C-Br bonds by photo-induced electrons, TBBPA underwent stepwise debromination and finally transferred into BPA in 6 h. In the following photocatalytic oxidation, under the attack of reactive oxygen species (O, h,OH and O), BPA was first decomposed into aromatic products (such as phenol, benzoic acid, p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol and so on) via C-C bond cracking and hydroxylation, and then further oxidized into organic acids like maleic acid and muconic acid through ring-opening, and finally mineralized into CO and HO. What was noteworthy was that the final effluent from the photocatalytic reduction/oxidation system showed no toxicity to the luminescent bacteria.