Enhanced Selectivity for Oriented Catalyzing Tetracycline by the Functional Inorganic Imprinted ZnFe2O4@Ag3PO4/SiO2 Photocatalyst with Excellent Stability

Abstract

A novel functional inorganic imprinted ZnFe2O4@Ag3PO4/SiO2 photocatalyst was synthesized by a facile sol–gel method combined with the surface imprinting technique, which possessed excellent stability. By optimizing the amount of materials, we determine the preferable addition amounts of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and tetracycline to be 0.06[Formula: see text]mL and 0.06[Formula: see text]g, respectively. This as-prepared functional inorganic imprinted ZnFe2O4@Ag3PO4/SiO2 photocatalyst was proved to not only exhibit high photocatalytic activity (the photodegradation rate was 61.52% under the simulated sunlight irradiation of 60[Formula: see text]min), but also possess a strong oriented ability to selectively recognize and photocatalyze tetracycline (the coefficient of selectivity ([Formula: see text] was 5.14 for ciprofloxacin and 3.63 for gatifloxacin). Moreover, the functional inorganic imprinted ZnFe2O4@Ag3PO4/SiO2 photocatalyst prepared with SiO2 as the inorganic imprinted layer has good stability and can be recycled many times. This work not only puts forward a novel design idea of functional semiconductor materials but also is expected to be widely applied to the oriented catalysis for a target substance according to the practical requirement.