Construction of new recoverable Ag-Fe3O4@Ca–Al LDH nanohybrids for visible light degradation of piroxicam

Abstract

Herein, for the first time, a hybrid material is used as an efficient photocatalyst to degrade piroxicam under visible light. By the use of Ag-Fe3O4@Ca–Al LDH hybrid (AFL hybrid), piroxicam (PX) solution was 95% degraded to CO2 and H2O in 150 min. The kinetic study showed that the degradation reaction of PX over photocatalyst adjusts well to a pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic. Optimizing the effective factors on reaction rates such as %Ag, PX solution concentrations, Na2SO4 amount, and catalyst dosage increased the rate constant to 0.03 min−1. The optical and electrical characteristics of AFL hybrid were studied through solid-state UV–vis diffuse absorption, photoluminescence emission (PL) spectroscopy, and photocurrent response, which predicted the high catalytic performance of the hybrid. The active radical capturing tests exhibited that O2– playing a major role in PX photodegradation by the assistant of Na2SO4. Also, the hybrid recovered easily by an external magnetic field.