Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Degradation of Selected Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) Using Tungsten Doped TiO: Effect of the Tungsten Precursors and Solvents.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) which include antibiotics such as tetracycline (TC) and ciprofloxacin (CIP), etc., have attracted increasing attention worldwide due to their potential threat to the aquatic environment and human health. In this work, a facile sol-gel method was developed to prepare tungsten-doped TiO with tunable W/W ratio for the removal of PPCPs. The influence of solvents in the synthesis of the three different tungsten precursors doped TiO is also taken into account. WCl, ammonium metatungstate (AMT), and NaWO●2HO not only acted as the tungsten precursors but also controlled the tungsten ratio. The photocatalyst prepared by WCl as the tungsten precursor and ethanol as the solvent showed the highest photodegradation performance for ciprofloxacin (CIP) and tetracycline (TC), and the photodegradation performance for tetracycline (TC) was 2.3, 2.8, and 7.8 times that of AMT, NaWO●2HO as the tungsten precursors and pristine TiO, respectively. These results were attributed to the influence of the tungsten precursors and solvents on the W/W ratio, sample crystallinity and surface properties. This study provides an effective method for the design of tungsten-doped TiO with tunable W/W ratio, which has a profound impact on future studies in the field of photocatalytic degradation of PPCPs using an environmentally friendly approach.