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Photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride by ZnO/TiO2 composite photocatalyst

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Abstract

Semiconductor photocatalytic technology is widely used in the degradation of antibiotic pollutants due to its easy operation, low energy consumption, and no secondary pollution. In this study, ZnO/TiO2 composite photocatalysts with the different sturcture and the different content were constructed using layered double hydroxide as precursor. The structure and physicochemical properties of the photocatalysts were characterized by the different characterization technologyies, such as XRD, SEM, FT-IR, LRS, UV–vis DRS, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm, XPS, UPS, EIS, and so on. The photocatalytic degradation performance and mechanism for tetracycline hydrochloride were studied. The results show that the light response performances of the as-prepared samples are improved by a calcination process. The surface active sites are increased and the transport and separation efficiency of photogenerated electrons and holes are improved. Among them, ZnO/TiO2-200 has the fastest degradation rate and the best catalytic activity, and its maximum apparent rate constant is 0.9576 × 10–3 L·mg−1·min−1. The analysis of photocatalytic mechanism and energy band structure shows that the main active substance of the system is ·O2−, and the photocatalytic degradation process follows the type II heterojunction photocatalytic reaction mechanism. This study provides ideas for the design and construction of high-efficiency photocatalytic composites, and provides a reference for the photocatalytic degradation of other organic pollutants.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 2008085QE194) and Innovation Fund Project of Anhui University of Science and Technology Graduate (No.2023CX2122).

Funding

Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation, No. 2008085QE194, Lifang Hu, Innovation Fund Project of Anhui University of Science and Technology Graduate, No.2023CX2122, Lifang Hu

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan, 232001, People’s Republic of China

    Lifang Hu, Mengting Xing, Xin He, Kun Yang, Jichao Zhu, Jie He & Jianjun Shi

  2. Anhui Shuanghuai Environmental Technology Co., LTD, Bengbu, 233002, People’s Republic of China

    Jianquan Wang

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  1. Lifang Hu
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  2. Mengting Xing
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Contributions

LH: Supervision, Funding support, Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing–review & editing. MX: Investigation, Methodology, Data analysis, Writing–original draft. XH: Experiments, Characterization, Investigation. KY: Data analysis, Writing–original draft. JZ: Data analysis, Writing–review & editing. JW: Writing–review & editing, JH: Supervision, Validation, Writing–review & editing. JS: Writing–review & editing.

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Correspondence to Lifang Hu or Jie He.

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Hu, L., Xing, M., He, X. et al. Photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride by ZnO/TiO2 composite photocatalyst. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 2273 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-023-11690-2

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