Abstract
The present paper reports the photodegradation of a pharmaceutical pollutant, Levofloxacin, in an aqueous solution using two photocatalyst nanocomposites, g-C3N4/TiO2 and WO3/TiO2, under the influence of solar light and UV irradiation. These as-designed nano-heterostructures were synthesized using the hydrothermal method without organic templates or additives. The characterization results revealed that the used preparation method grants the purity of the prepared composites and gives a nanoscale character product. The effects of the weight ratio of g-C3N4/TiO2 and WO3/TiO2, the mass of the catalyst and the initial concentration of Levofloxacin on the photocatalytic activity were evaluated under UV light. Results showed that 5 mg/L of Levofloxacin with 20 mg of the prepared nanocomposite with a 5% weight ratio of g-C3N4 and WO3 allowed a quasi-total degradation of the pharmaceutical pollutant within only 30 min. The photocatalytic activities investigation of the prepared nanocomposites under sunlight irradiation showed that after 50 min of treatment, 66% of degradation is reached with WO3/TiO2 against 100% with g-C3N4/TiO2. The possible photocatalytic mechanism was thoroughly investigated, explaining the improved photocatalytic activity. This work demonstrates that the prepared nanocomposites' photocatalytic degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants is efficient, providing a friendly environmental strategy.
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The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research [reference number: PRF 2019-D6P3].
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Trifi, B., Nahdi, A., Othmani, A. et al. Photocatalytic degradation of a pharmaceutical pollutant (Levofloxacin) by two-hybrid photocatalysts g-C3N4/TiO2 and WO3/TiO2: comparative study. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 3747–3760 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05222-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05222-y