BiOBr/Coal Gangue-Based SAPO-5 Molecular Sieve Nanocomposite for Enhanced Adsorption and Photocatalytic Degradation of Methylene Blue

The accumulation of organic pollutants and solid waste is one of the major environmental challenges faced globally. Establishing an efficient recycling system for solid waste and designing cost-effective, high-performance photocatalysts are urgent tasks for the removal of organic pollutants from water. This study utilizes coal gangue as the precursor to synthesize a coal gangue-based phosphorus-silicon-aluminum molecular sieve (SAPO-5) via hydrothermal synthesis. The resulting material was then composited with bismuth oxybromide (BiOBr) to form a novel BiOBr/coal gangue-based SAPO-5 nanocomposite. When the mass ratio of BiOBr to coal gangue-based SAPO-5 molecular sieve is 0.3, the synthesized nanocomposite exhibits excellent adsorption and photocatalytic performance for the removal of methylene blue, achieving a removal rate of 97.8% and the mineralization rate of 57.4% within 30 min. The superior performance can be attributed to the optimal pore size, rapid charge transfer rate, and high photogenerated charge density of the BiOBr/coal gangue-based SAPO-5 nanocomposite. The novel BiOBr/coal gangue-based SAPO-5 molecular sieve nanocomposite catalyst presents a new approach for the harmless treatment of organic dye wastewater and the high-value utilization of coal gangue.