Effective coupling of BiPO4/g-C3N4 hybrid composites in ciprofloxacin photodegradation

Abstract

A BiPO4/g-C3N4 photoactive system has been prepared by means of a practical ultrasound-assisted procedure in aqueous medium. The obtained hybrid composites were widely characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption measurements. The photocatalytic features of the samples were examined through the degradation of orange G dye and ciprofloxacin antibiotic, where the higher photocatalytic performance for the degradation of both pollutants was achieved for the g-C3N4 with 1 wt% loading of BiPO4 (1-BiPO4 sample). To explain this outstanding performance, a possible mechanism involving the delocalization of the photogenerated charge carriers in the BiPO4/g-C3N4 system is discussed. Also, total organic carbon analysis and photocatalytic tests with radical scavengers were performed to elucidate the importance of the reactive oxidizing species during the photocatalytic process.