Effective removal of azithromycin by novel g-C3N4/CdS/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite under visible light irradiation

Abstract

In this study, the visible light active pristine, binary and ternary g-C3N4/CdS/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite is prepared through a coprecipitation-assisted hydrothermal technique. The characterization of the as-synthesized catalysts was conducted using various analytical techniques. When compared with pristine and binary nanocomposites, the ternary g-C3N4/CdS/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite exhibits higher photocatalytic degradation of azithromycin (AZ) under a visible light source. Ternary nanocomposite exhibits high AZ removal efficiency of about 85% within 90 min of the photocatalytic degradation experiment. Enhanced the visible light absorption ability and the suppression of photoexcited charge carriers is also achieved by forming heterojunctions between pristine materials. The ternary nanocomposite exhibited ∼2 times higher degradation efficiency than CdS/CuFe2O4 nanoparticles and ∼3 times higher degradation efficiency than CuFe2O4. The trapping experiments were conducted and it shows superoxide radicals (O2•-) are the predominant reactive species involved in the photocatalytic degradation reaction. This study provided a promising approach for the treatment of contaminated water using g-C3N4/CdS/CuFe2O4 as a photocatalyst.