Application of Box–Behnken Design to Optimize Visible-Light Degradation of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Using Hybrid CNQDs/CuBi2O4 Catalyst

The narrow band gap and rapid recombination rate of photogenerated carriers in CuBi2O4 limits the photocatalytic performance. Because it possesses unique properties such as up-conversion photoluminescence (PL) and in-plane quantum confinement effect, graphitic carbon nitride quantum dots (CNQDs) have outstanding application prospects in many fields. By combining solid-phase, coprecipitation and reconstruction methods, a new Z-scheme CNQDs/CuBi2O4 photocatalyst was successfully fabricated. The Box–Behnken design was optimized to study the complex interaction between reaction parameters. The CNQDs percentage in the catalyst, reaction time, 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) concentration, catalyst dose, and pH were varied from 0 to 2