Effective degradation of ciprofloxacin and Cr (VI) by surface plasmon resonance induced photocatalyst Ag (0)/BiVO4@SiO2: Performance and mechanism

Abstract

A novel plasmonic Ag (0)/BiVO4@SiO2 composite was fabricated by encapsulation of SiO2 on the surface of porous BiVO4 followed by the loading of different percentage of Ag nanoparticle on the surface of BiVO4/SiO2 using reducing agent. The optimized Ag (0)/BiVO4@SiO2 manifests the highest photocatalytic performance towards degrading ciprofloxacin (CIP) and hexavalent chromium Cr (VI), which degradation efficiencies are 93.3 % and 95.6 % respectively. Such enhancement in photocatalytic degradation could be due to the absorption in the visible light range induced by LSPR (localized surface Plasmon resonance) and effective transportation and interfacial separation of photogenerated charge carriers in Ag(0)/BiVO4@SiO2. The impacts of different key parameters such as (pH, different catalyst dose concentration, and various substrate concentrations) are investigated systematically. The excellent mineralization capacity and recyclability performance of Ag (0)/BiVO4@SiO2 are mainly attributed due to the presence of reactive radicals such as h+, OH., O2−., e-s produced during the reaction time h+, and OH., are considered as the dominant species for the photocalytic oxidation of CIP and O2−., e− are for the reduction of Cr (VI). Therefore, this present study not only report on plasmonic photocatalyst but also new design of photocatalyst capable of degrading efficiently antibiotics as well as toxic heavy metal.