Construction of NiTiO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction with preferable photocatalytic performance for tetracycline degradation

Abstract

Tetracycline antibiotics as one of the most widely used antibiotics at present, are difficult to degrade in the environment, which poses a serious threat to the ecosystem and human health. In this work, NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composites were successfully constructed by calcination method using nickel acetate tetrahydrate as nickel source and tetrabutyl titanate as titanium source. The photocatalytic degradation efficiency of the 5 wt% NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composite of TC can reach 88.2 % within 150 min, which was 1.4 and 2.2 times higher than that of pure g-C3N4 (63 %) and NiTiO3 (40 %), respectively. The 5 wt% NiTiO3/g-C3N4 composite can still maintain good stability after four cycles. The experimental results showed that the construction of Z-scheme heterojunction can effectively improve the photocatalytic activity of the catalysts and maintain good redox properties at the same time. Furthermore, a possible mechanism of photocatalytic degradation of NiTiO3/g-C3N4 heterojunction has been suggested.