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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received January 15, 2026
Accepted June 7, 2026
Available online October 26, 2026

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Most Cited

The Presence of Oxygen Vacancies and Protonation Promotes Photogenerated Charge Separation and Singlet Oxygen Generation for Efficient Removal of Gaseous Toluene Under Visible Light

Guanghua Cai Jun Li Lei Wu Yang Li Zhendong Ouyang Xiaofei Li Yunxiao Wen Jian Yang^† Ximei Fan^†

Key Laboratory of Advanced Technologies of Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University

jyang10619@swjtu.edu.cn, xmfan@swjtu.edu.cn

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, October 2026, 43(12), 3389-3400(12)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-026-00772-6

Abstract

The development of effective technologies for degrading low-concentration volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor

environments remains a critical challenge in environmental remediation. In this work, a Bi2MoO6-based photocatalyst

featuring oxygen vacancies (OVs) and protonation was successfully synthesized via a solvothermal method followed

by acid treatment. The optimized catalyst exhibited remarkable performance in degrading low-concentration toluene (30

ppm), achieving 95.43% and 97.44% degradation rates under visible-light irradiation for 120 min in air and pure oxygen

atmospheres. Mechanistic studies revealed that the introduced oxygen vacancies effectively suppress photo-induced carrier

recombination, while protonation enhances molecular oxygen activation, modulates singlet oxygen (1

O2) generation,

and facilitates toluene oxidation. This synergistic strategy not only broadens the visible-light absorption range but also

enables precise regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. The proposed approach demonstrates excellent

visible-light responsiveness and ROS controllability under mild conditions, offering a promising solution for addressing

widespread environmental pollution through efficient solar-driven VOCs mineralization.

Keywords

Photocatalysis · Toluene · Singlet oxygen · Oxygen vacancies