2-D gC3N4 supported CoFe2O4 nanoparticles as an efficient S-scheme catalyst for various antibiotic degradation

Abstract

The environmental contaminations from antibiotics are precariously leading to the development of antibiotic resistant-bacteria and thus removal of these antibiotics is very imperative to sustain a clean and salubrious environment. Herein, we report a catalyst comprising CoFe2O4 nanoparticles and gC3N4 nanosheets (CF-gC3N4) which manifested its remarkable catalytic efficiency towards the degradation of various commonly used antibiotics. The catalyst degraded tetracycline hydrochloride, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, and sulfamethoxazole in 12, 15, 20, and 15 min, respectively, under simulated solar light irradiation. Whereas, all these antibiotics were degraded within 1 min under microwave irradiation. The catalyst offers easy magnetic separation, exhibited ∼ 91% catalytic efficiency, and showed no noteworthy changes in its morphology or crystal structure after being reused for five consecutive catalysis cycles. Hence, this work puts forward an astounding economically and environmentally favourable catalyst (CF-gC3N4) which elucidated the practical applicability to resolve the environmental issues arising from the contamination of antibiotics.