Gunawan Gunawan, Ahmad Suseno, Nor Basid Adiwibawa Prasetya, Fitria 'Izzatun Nisa, Riska Maharani, Feng Jiang, Roni Adi Wijaya
Developing efficient visible-light photocatalysts with optimized interfacial charge transfer remains a critical challenge for sustainable wastewater remediation. Herein, BiVO4/CdS/Fe2O3 Z-scheme thin films were engineered via sequential spin-coating of BiVO4, chemical bath deposition of CdS, and photoelectrodeposition of Fe2O3 as a cocatalyst. The calcination temperature of the BiVO4 layer was systematically tuned to regulate crystallinity, morphology, and optoelectronic properties. The film annealed at 500 °C exhibited optimal characteristics, including suppressed charge recombination and enhanced light absorption. The introduction of a CdS interlayer establishes an effective Z-scheme heterojunction, while Fe2O3 serves as a hole-extraction cocatalyst that accelerates surface oxidation kinetics. As a result, the optimized BiVO4/CdS/Fe2O3 film achieves 93.6% methylene blue degradation within 120 min, obeying pseudo-first-order kinetics (k = 0.0222 min−1), representing a ∼ 1.9-fold enhancement compared to pristine BiVO4. Photoelectrochemical measurements reveal significantly reduced charge-transfer resistance and enhanced photocurrent density, confirming improved carrier separation and transport. Mechanistic analysis demonstrates that the Z-scheme mechanism retains high redox potentials, enabling the efficient generation of reactive oxygen species that drive successive oxidation and mineralization of methylene blue. This study highlights a synergistic strategy that combines spin-coating optimization with heterojunction–cocatalyst interfacial engineering to design high-performance Z-scheme thin-film photocatalysts rationally. © 2026 Elsevier B.V.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Diponegoro University, Semarang, 50271, Indonesia; Institute of Semiconductor Science and Technology, South China Normal University, China; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, East Jakarta, 13220, Indonesia
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