A research on shape-controllable synthesis of AgPO/AgBr and its degradation of ciprofloxacin.

Antibiotic ciprofloxacin is one of the commonly used broad spectrum fluoroquinolone human and veterinary drugs. Because of the overuse of human beings, the presence of ciprofloxacin has been detected in a variety of environmental matrices. To solve this problem, a facile, environmentally-friendly AgPO/AgBr composite photocatalyst was synthesized by a simple precipitation method at room temperature in the presence of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB). CTAB was served as surfactant and the source of bromide ions. The as-prepared AgPO/AgBr microspheres were characterized by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The results revealed that the AgPO/AgBr sample (synthesized with CTAB, 0.8 g) exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity to the photodegradation rate of 96.36%. Moreover, mechanism detection experiment indicated that h was the major active species in the degradation process. So the enhanced photocatalytic activity of AgPO/AgBr composites is attributed to its excellent separation of photogenerated electron-hole pairs through AgPO/AgBr heterojunction. Also, AgPO/AgBr heterojunction has a lower band gap compared to pure AgPO and pure AgBr, so higher efficiency of light harvesting is equipped.