Influence of fuel type and microwave combustion on in-situ fabrication of BiOBr mixed-phase nanostructured photocatalyst: Effective sun-light photo-response ability in tetracycline degradation.

In this research, BiOBr nanophotocatalysts were fabricated using various fuels such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and glycerol to investigate the effect of fuel types on the photocatalytic activity and structure. Moreover, the influence of conventional and microwave combustion was investigated. Results of XRD, EDX, BET-BJH, FESEM, TEM and DRS techniques illustrated that the simultaneous use of the glycerol and microwave irradiation was leaded to the synthesis of BiOBr nanophotocatalyst with unique characteristics; which consists of 26 % BiOBr and 74 % BiOBr. The photocatalytic performance of this sample was investigated in the photo-decomposition of the tetracycline antibiotic under a light source that was simulated as the solar light. The results of reactor test showed the highest photo-degradation efficiency (98.9 %) of tetracycline over this nanophotocatalyst. In addition, in order to appraise the effects of operational variables on the photocatalytic process efficiency the tetracycline concentration, initial pH of polluted solution and dosage of photocatalyst were changed. Moreover, the re-used of the optimum photocatalyst was evaluated. Finally, a mechanism for the photocatalytic decomposition of the antibiotic was suggested.