Flower ball cathode assembled from Cu doped Co(3)S(4)/Ni(3)S(2) ultrathin nanosheets in a photocatalytic fuel cell for efficient photoelectrochemical rifampicin purification and simultaneous electricity generation based on a CuO QDs/TiO(2)/WO(3) photoanode

Herein, an efficient CuO QDs/TiO(2)/WO(3) photoanode and a Cu doped Co(3)S(4)/Ni(3)S(2) cathode were successfully synthesized. The optimized CuO QDs/TiO(2)/WO(3) photoanode achieved a photocurrent density of 1.93 mA cm(−2) at 1.23 vs. RHE, which was 2.27 times that of a WO(3) photoanode. The CuO QDs/TiO(2)/WO(3)-buried junction silicon (BJS) photoanode was coupled with the Cu doped Co(3)S(4)/Ni(3)S(2) cathode to construct a novel photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) system. The as-established PFC system showed a high rifampicin (RFP) removal ratio of 93.4% after 90 min and maximum power output of 0.50 mW cm(−2). Quenching tests and EPR spectra demonstrated that ˙OH, ˙O(2)(−) and (1)O(2) were the main reactive oxygen species in the system. This work provides a possibility to construct a more efficient PFC system for environmental protection and energy recovery in the future.