The effect of internal stress on the photocatalytic performance of the Zn doped BiOBr photocatalyst for tetracycline degradation

Background: The serious environmental pollution caused by the massive deposition of antibiotics in the envi-ronment has aroused widespread concern.Methods: In this work, stress engineering is used to modulate the visible-light-driven photodegradation of tetracycline (TC) by Zn-doped BiOBr flower microspheres, which were successfully prepared by a solvothermal method.Significant findings: Compared with pure BiOBr, zinc-doped BiOBr significantly improved the visible light cata-lytic degradation efficiency of TC. When increasing the content of Zn, a local n-type zone gradually formed in the p-type BiOBr matrix to form pseudo-heterojunction with lateral heterojunction properties, and the best photo -catalytic performance is 12%Zn-BiOBr. In addition, the role of active species in TC photodegradation was evaluated by adding different trapping agents. The association with internal stress and photodegradation per-formance was established, and the mechanism to enhance the photodegradation performance under visible light irradiation of Zn-doped BiOBr photocatalysts was proposed.