Fabricating ternary zeolite/g-C3N4/AgCl composites for accelerated tetracycline degradation

Abstract

In this work, ternary Zeolite Socony Mobil-5 (ZSM-5) decorated g-C3N4/AgCl composites were fabricated via the calcination and chemical deposition methods for removal of tetracycline under visible-light irradiation. The transmission electron microscopy indicated the successful formation of g-C3N4/AgCl heterojunction on the surface of ZSM-5. Significantly, the introduction of ZSM-5 greatly boosted the charge separation and visible-light photocatalytic performance, and the obtained ZSM-5/g-C3N4/AgCl-50% composite exhibits the highest photocatalytic performance, and approximately 78.95% of tetracycline could be degraded in 25 min. The rate constant of the obtained ZSM-5/g-C3N4/AgCl-50% composite reached 0.05646 min−1, which was approximately 6.46 times that of pristine g-C3N4, 5.26 times that of AgCl, and 3.59 times that of g-C3N4/AgCl composite, clearly revealing the dominant role of zeolite in boosting photocatalytic performance. Finally, the generated •O2− and holes were demonstrated the main reactive radicals for tetracycline degradation under visible-light irradiation.