Direct Z-scheme red carbon nitride/rod-like lanthanum vanadate composites with enhanced photodegradation of antibiotic contaminants

Abstract

Herein, a novel direct Z-scheme mechanism of red carbon nitride/rod-like LaVO4 (RCNL) photocatalyst was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method. Under visible light irradiation, the photocatalytic degradation experiments on tetracycline (TC) and naproxen (NPX) showed that 5% RCNL material presented the best photocatalytic performance, which was 3 times (TC) and 2.69 times (NPX) higher than pure LaVO4, respectively. The degradation process of tetracycline and naproxen was further analyzed by mass spectrometry, and their possible degradation routes were proposed. The antibacterial results (against Escherichia coli) showed that the degrading products have lower toxicity. The analysis of band structure, electron spin resonance technique and free radical trapping experiments showed that the h+ at valence band of RCN and e- at the conduction band of LaVO4 participated in the final photocatalytic redox process to achieve high redox ability for the rapid degradation of pollutants.