Rameel Muhammad Imran, Wali Mehar, Al-Humaidi Jehan Y, Liaqat Faroha, Khan Muhammad Abdullah
Renewable Energy Advancement Laboratory (REAL), Department of Environmental Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad, Pakistan.
Department of Chemistry College of Science Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. P.O. BOX 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia.
Heliyon. 2023 Sep 28;9(10):e20479. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20479. eCollection 2023 Oct.
The growing usage of antibiotics and their subsequent release in water bodies have become a serious environmental concern. In this study, heterostructured photocatalysts CN/NbO have been synthesized using a simple hydrothermal method and applied to facilitate the degradation of the widely used antibiotic levofloxacin. The structural, morphological, and optical properties of the photocatalysts were characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-Vis and PL to establish the structure-property relationship. The type-II heterojunctions CN/NbO show remarkable activity under visible light irradiation, where NbO facilitates preferential adsorption of levofloxacin at the catalyst surface while CN extends visible light absorption. This synergy resulted in superior catalytic performance (91%) in the optimized system, exceeding that of individual materials (NbO 30% and CN 56%). The effect of catalyst dosage, pH, oxygen and point of zero is also investigated. The process is mainly photo-driven, and the trapping experiments reveal superoxide radicals as key species responsible for the degradation. Additionally, the adsorption behaviour, reformation of the degraded pollutant and reusability factors are evaluated to assess the practical feasibility of the photocatalytic system.
抗生素使用的增加及其随后在水体中的释放已成为一个严重的环境问题。在本研究中,采用简单的水热法合成了异质结构光催化剂CN/NbO,并将其应用于促进广泛使用的抗生素左氧氟沙星的降解。利用XRD、SEM、TEM、UV-Vis和PL对光催化剂的结构、形貌和光学性质进行了表征,以建立结构-性能关系。II型异质结CN/NbO在可见光照射下表现出显著的活性,其中NbO促进了左氧氟沙星在催化剂表面的优先吸附,而CN扩展了可见光吸收。这种协同作用在优化体系中产生了优异的催化性能(91%),超过了单一材料(NbO为30%,CN为56%)。还研究了催化剂用量、pH值、氧气和零电荷点的影响。该过程主要由光驱动,捕获实验表明超氧自由基是负责降解的关键物种。此外,还评估了吸附行为、降解污染物的再形成和可重复使用性因素,以评估光催化系统的实际可行性。
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