One Stone, Two Birds Strategy for Synthesized Metallic Bi-Doped ZnWO4-Enriched Oxygen Defection for Enhancing Marine Bacterial Inactivation

Abstract

Deactivating the concentration of marine microorganisms is suitable and proper for ballast water treatment. In here, a promising strategy has been presented to create massive oxygen vacancies synergistic with metallic Bi nanoparticles on ZnWO₄ for inactivating marine bacteria in seawater, demonstrating that the paramount incorporation of metallic Bi nanoparticles and 2BZWO (Bi/ZnWO₄) samples exhibits superior photocatalytic sterilization, in which the sterilization efficiency of 2BZWO is 2.83 times that of pure ZnWO₄. The co-incorporation of metallic Bi nanoparticles and oxygen vacancies significantly enhanced the absorption of visible light and enrichment of the photogenerated electrons, promoting the separation of charge carriers. Moreover, first-principles calculations demonstrate that the coeffect of metallic Bi nanoparticles and oxygen vacancies guided the reconfiguration of the active sites and electrons flowing direction. Results from this study provide a creative strategy on controllable Bi/ZnWO₄ synthesis to manipulate the photocatalytic inactivation of marine bacteria.