Assembling of orthorhombic CaTiO3 particles with carbon fiber with rich surface oxygen vacancies and interfacial charge transfer for enhanced decomposition of recalcitrant antibiotic under visible light

Abstract

CaTiO3-based heterojunction materials have been presented as promising highly-efficient photocatalysts in water treatment applications. Herein CaTiO3/carbon fiber (CTO/CF) samples were successfully fabricated, and they were utilized in a superior photocatalytic tetracycline (TC) degradation process, which was driven by higher redox-active charge-carriers under visible light illumination. The incorporation of CF into CTO widened the light absorption region and increased oxygen vacancies, enhancing degradation rate. Furthermore, a good energy band structure was formed in the heterojunction to facilitate the photogenerated carrier separation. The optimum CTO/CF photocatalyst exhibited 93.5% antibiotic removal rate at pH 6.5, also it showed high stability in five-cycle TC degradation process. The removal performance significantly took place over •O2−, also the oxidant addition, especially persulfate promoted the formation of the radicals, enhancing the antibiotic decomposition. The catalytic effect was also observed in high valued (60%–70%) in tap water, seawater, and river water media. In addition, CFO/CF heterostructured sample exhibited considerable performance for dye removal. This work provides a way to design new photocatalyst using semiconductor Ca-based perovskite and CF materials.