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Facile synthesis of cadmium-doped graphite carbon nitride for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation

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Abstract

In recent years, using semiconductor photocatalysts for antibiotic contaminant degradation under visible light has become a hot topic. Herein, a novel and ingenious cadmium-doped graphite phase carbon nitride (Cd-g-C3N4) photocatalyst was successfully constructed via the thermal polymerization method. Experimental and characterization results revealed that cadmium (Cd) was well doped at the g-C3N4 surface and exhibited high intercontact with g-C3N4. Additionally, the introduction of cadmium significantly improved the photocatalytic activity, and the optimum degradation efficiency of tetracycline (TC) reached 98.1%, which was exceeded 2.0 times that of g-C3N4 (43.9%). Meanwhile, the Cd-doped sample presented a higher efficiency of electrical conductivity, light absorption property, and photogenerated electron-hole pair migration compared with g-C3N4. Additionally, the quenching experiments and electron spin-resonance tests exhibited that holes (h+), hydroxyl radicals (•OH), superoxide radicals (•O2) were the main active species involved in TC degradation. The effects of various conditions on photocatalytic degradation, such as pH, initial TC concentrations, and catalyst dosage, were also researched. Finally, the degradation mechanism was elaborated in detail. This work gives a reasonable point to synthesizing high-efficiency and economic metal-doped photocatalysts.

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All data generated or analyzed during the current study are included in this article and its supplementary information files.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52070077, U20A20323, 51521006, 51879101), the National Program for Support of Top-Notch Young Professionals of China (2014), the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-13R17), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (531118010226).

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YZ: Responsible for writing papers, conducting experiments, drawing the chart, and analyzing the characterization part. HQ, ZW, HW, YH, QT, QL, PX: Responsible for reviewing the article and providing suggestions for revisions. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YZ and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Piao Xu.

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Responsible Editor: George Z. Kyzas

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Zhao, Y., Qin, H., Wang, Z. et al. Facile synthesis of cadmium-doped graphite carbon nitride for photocatalytic degradation of tetracycline under visible light irradiation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 74062–74080 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21051-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21051-x

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